We Are Golden (or: Alien Puberty Fucking Sucks)
by sewingrose7
Summary: Set at the end of Z, Trunks, Goten, & Marron go on a Dragon Ball hunt to find out answers about their Saiyan heritage and resurrect Raditz. Meanwhile Trunks and Goten work out their relationship with each other. T/G, T&G&M friendship, canon ships w/ background Vegeta/Goku in an established poly setup. Slight Homestuck crossover, in that Saiyans have kismesis. Full summary inside.
1. Chapter 1

**Full Summary:**

It's Summer Vacation after their last year in High School and Trunks and Goten are ready to cut loose and have a fun summer filled with lazing around, hanging out with their friends, and of course fighting.

Featuring: A Dragon Ball Hunt, Vegeta's refusal to open up about his emotions backfiring on him, Raditz being wished back and then constantly bullied, Marron discovering Godtube, a stealth crossover with Homestuck, and much more!

All the while Goten and Trunks are coming to terms with their Saiyan nature, their Earthling nature, and what exactly are they in relation to one another. But hey, no one every said that life and true love was going to be easy.

**Notes:**

I'm posting this first on ao3 and then crossposting here, so if you want to be more up to date you can check out this story on ao3.

So this is sort of a sequel to a long Vegeta POV fic I'm working on where Saiyans have a version of Kismesis from Homestuck. I'm still working on that fic but it's a different beast and probably won't be posted anytime soon. You will see an exploration of the differences between Red and Black romance later in this fic with regards to Goten and Trunks, but they are their own ball of confusion.

Cliff notes! Basically, Saiyans have two forms of romance and two types of relationship they look for:

Red Romance/Mates: Our normal perception of romance, your lifemate who you want to settle down with, including having children and all that typical domestic nonsense. As seen with Goku/ChiChi and Vegeta/ Bulma.

Black Romance/Kismesis: A hatemance/rivalry with benefits. It's as deep and committed of a relationship as having a mate, and is sexual in nature. The one that you dedicate your life to being better than and the one you want to eventually be your death-mate, be it the two of you together against a foe or a fatal duel between them both.

Using the canon setup that Saiyans maintaining their youth until their later years (around 80 years), at which point they age suddenly and severely, and inspired by some stuff from Dragon Ball Online about how Goku and Vegeta died. It's the goal and norm of Saiyans to want to die in combat before that onset of age, and what better blaze of glory is there then to go out with your greatest rival?

In that story, which I've nicknamed Saiyan Kismesis, Vegeta in an angry pining tsundere who develops a black crush on Goku during the whole Saiyan-Frieza sagas, but perceives Goku's lack of reciprocation as rejection as opposed to Goku just being completely oblivious and having no perception of kismesis nor of how romance works unless someone explains it to his face. (So, you know, basically canon).

This goes on (and on and on) till Super era, where Vegeta finally admits his feelings for Goku, who once hearing this is an option is pretty into it. After an embarrassing talk with Bulma and ChiChi, they settle into an ethically non-monogamous relationship where they are allowed to be with their wives and their kismesis.

The general reaction of friends and family ranges from "Oh so Vegeta's Goku obsession has a name" to "Please don't kiss each other where I can see". This is all well established by the time this fic takes place and will mostly exist in the background, but will be addressed later.

**Fic Proper Start:**

**Chapter One: 'Cause They Couldn't Find A Word For Our Kind of Insane**

** (Trunks)**

If Trunks had to describe his relationship with Goten in just a single sentence it would be this: it was complicated.

Now that wasn't complicated in a negative sense exactly, but complicated like the twin engines on his favorite custom supersonic hoverbike was complicated. Consisting of thousands of separate moving parts that required precise precision to work properly, and when you heard a strange noise or saw an error light, you knew it meant doing a full days teardown and reassembly in his workshop, and hours upon hours of troubleshooting and tracking down just where the flaw in the design was, which honestly was one of Trunks's favorite things to do on a,

Wait, where was he going with this? Oh right, him and Goten. See, much like Trunks's precious hoverbike, his relationship with Goten was for some reason everyone else thought was incomprehensibly complicated to everyone else, but all Trunks could do was marvel at the elegance of its complexity.

And okay maybe this wasn't the best analogy. Goten would probably complain about him making it all seem unnecessarily mechanical it for the sake of showing off to everyone who didn't have Trunks's genius level intellect. But it wasn't like that! It was just how Trunks's brain worked, and it wasn't like Goten was wrong that he didn't _need_ to explain it in such terms, it was just the first comparison that came to his mind when he tried to think of an analogy.

Because for all that the relationship between him and Goten seemed sometimes overly complicated, and it wasn't _not _that, but to Trunks it was also spectacularly simple.

They were two parts of one whole. They were meant to work together, meant to be together.

Trunks was only 18 years old and he already knew who he was meant to spend the rest of his life with, which sounded ridiculous of course, but it wasn't ridiculous to him because it was just a truth that he'd known for over a decade already.

If Trunks was feeling particularly sappy (or particularly drunk) he might even have used a different word entirely: Soulmates.

But that was not something Trunks was ever going to admit out loud or sober, because he could just imagine how everyone else would react to hearing it. Or hell how everyone else would even react to knowing they were "dating", they kept that information on lock down, and with good fucking reason.

So if you asked Trunks what he would call Goten out loud, he'd have to go with "best friend", because that's what they'd agreed upon. Which was absolutely fine by Trunks, even if most people would think it was a little vague, because Trunks _knew_ that Goten felt the same things he did.

Goten had a whole speech he must have prepared about how superior "best friend" was to "boyfriend", it was right there in the name "best" was clearly a superior modifier then "boy". And it was also delightfully vague and obtuse to hide behind. Sort of like the word "partner" which was just as accurate in every sense of it but at the same time didn't come close to encompassing everything about them.

Besides, there was something so very… juvenile about the word boyfriend, something that seemed to diminish what they were. And maybe Trunks had heard a few to many stories the "Dragon Gang" had told over alcohol of how they had all met, where his mom had first set off on the quest to find the Dragon Balls all in order to wish for a boyfriend. Which, had led her to meeting Goku and everyone else, but it wasn't exactly a story Trunks liked hearing.

(It was also one that made his Dad annoyed about and usually demand a spontaneous sparring match with Goku to get his jealousy out.)

Yes best was clearly better than boy. And even if no one else understood everything that was being said when they used the word, Trunks did. He knew Goten's soul like he knew his own, a fact that was only made literal when they formed Gotenks. So he had no problem keeping the extend of their relationship a secret form everyone for the foreseeable future, they didn't need anyone butting in like it was their business.

Something just for them.

"It's over, oh god it's finally over!" Calcula cried as surged out the doorway of their Calculus classroom and into the afternoon sun, before turning back to Trunks who followed her out. "No more cramming, no more studying, no more review, final exams are done!"

"Here, here." Trunks laughed as she took to spinning in circles to express her joy, as they made their way to The Tree that they always hung out at, and sure enough they weren't the first there. Stapular was on his phone, Goten was leaning against the tree in relaxation, while Inka was at work filling doodling over up and down his left arm.

Goten was the first to notice they were approaching, of course, he was far too tuned into Trunks's ki-it would have been impossible for him not to. He opened his eyes and waved at them with the arm that wasn't currently being monopolized by Inka and her pens. "Hey!"

"About time you two got out of the class," Stapular called as he glanced up from his mobile game before immediately going back to it."We've already been done with our history finals for the past 15 minutes already."

"Now, we just have to wait for Krayron to get out of his Bio class," Inka said pausing in her drawing while Calcula flung herself on the bench next to them. "You know what an ass Bookins is, always holding everyone to the last minute, because he hates that we have lives. Anyways, how was the Calc exam, Calc?"

"Har har, I can't wait to hear that joke again," Calclua said rolling her eyes dramatically and finally settled down enough that Inka went back to drawing, "Oh right, I don't have to! Because it's over! I did pretty good, only had a few that I'm worried about."

"Oh stop it, you're the top of the class, you did fine," Trunks said, giving her a very gentle shove to make enough space for him at the end of the bench.

She shoved him back, harder, with enough force that had been a regular human it would have been enough to knock him off the bench, but for Trunks it was basically nothing. Still he had to fake some reaction to avoid seeming to suspicious, but it was worth it because his slight flinch seemed to infuriate Calcula even more.

"Oh shut up, I'm only the top of the class because you don't turn in your homework," she hissed with a long simmering frustration. "You always get better scores than me on the tests."

"Yeah but that's only homework," Trunks said with an exaggerated shrug just to see her scowl.

"I think going to burn all my Trig notes," Stapular interrupted, as he put his phone down to look at the rest of the group. "Inka, you were as miserable in that class as I was. Want to join me in my ritual purifying bonfire?"

"Speak for yourself, my Trig notes have some of my best drawings I did this whole year."

"No wonder you had such a hard time remembering the lessons," Goten teased.

"I'm not going to need math when I become an artist," Inka said, before finally removing her pen from Goten's arm. "And done! Just like you wanted, one Eastern-Style Dragon!" Goten smiled and waved his arm around to get a look at the design that wrapped his way around his right arm.

"Oh hey, you got Shenron," Trunks said, taking a closer look, "But he's red and gold."

Inka made a face, "Yeah Goten wanted him in green but I don't have enough green to make it work. Also I'm calling him Fuzanglong after the Dragon of Hidden Treasures. Where did you get the Shenron name from anyway?"

"Just an old story we heard when we were kids," Goten said, eager to change the subject. But thankfully an interruption arrived in the form of Krayron pirouetting over with his hands in the air yelling, "I'm free! I'm free!"

Krayron liked to announce his presence the same way he did anything, be it improv club or passing the ball on the field: flamboyantly.

"And now the gangs all here under our tree, but it's for the last time, how tragic and sad," Krayron faked a mournful tone

"Good riddance!" Calcula yelled and the rest of them joined in on her cheers.

"So Goten, how's it feel to be graduating a whole year earlier than you should have, skipping grades like you did," Inka asked.

Goten rolled his eyes, "For the hundredth time, I never skipped a grade, it's not my fault that my homeschooling already had me cover the material ahead of what I was supposed to."

He didn't say that it was probably a deliberate move on his mother's part when they were younger. Trunks was confident it sprang from a conversation with Bulma in despair about Trunks's lack of attention or focus on schoolwork, and how maybe if Goten was on the same curriculum it might even trigger their competitive nature and make them want to do well. Which if that was in fact the case it certainly worked, as they both enrolled at Sunrise School in West City for their last two years of secondary school together.

There they had met the group of weirdos they now called their friends. Call it a natural predilection towards freaks and deviants, but Trunks and Goten had found themselves fitting in with these outsiders much more than they did with the majority of their classmates.

Krayron was an outgoing guy who split his time between the soccer team and the acting club. He wanted to be an actor, but had a knack for sports that he was going to use to get him into a decent school. Calcula was the smart girl who annoyed her classmates with her overachieving status. Stapular was way too into video games and reciting nerd trivia. While Inka was the weird girl who drew too much.

"Yeah, yeah you're still a year younger than the rest of us. So you're the baby of the group," Krayron proclaimed.

Goten rolled his eyes, "Well I guess someone needed to make sure Trunks didn't ditch school every day to play in his workshop."

"Well now I have all summer to spend time in my workshop with my projects," Trunks said.

"Same but with my games and shows." Stapular said.

"And my art!" Inka joined in. They all laughed.

Krayron was running his hands through his hair with his excess energy, "Well unlike you people who live indoors I'm going to be spending the summer at acting camp, before training for soccer starts up in July." Then turning to glare at Goten and Trunks, he made sure to add, "I'm still salty you guys refused to join the team, we could have done even better in regionals with you guys on it. I know you two would have killed it on the team."

"Sorry," Goten shrugged. "The Satan Dojo requires a commitment to prioritize it over other all other forms of athletics."

Years of hearing the stories about Gohan and his disaster of a high-school baseball game from Videl had told them it wasn't worth the trouble dealing with Phys Ed at the school. And of course Hercule was all to willing to offer his "help", and sign the paperwork and declare both Goten and Trunks students of his dojo, and get them an exception.

Never mind that they had never even visited the place or that they had both picked up more knowledge about martial arts around the house when they were kids then the entirety of the school's courses available. It was a convenient excuse, and also got them out of requirements to participate in Phys Ed, which was a good time to get homework done. Well at least Goten's homework while Trunks spent the time tinkering with whatever his gadget he's smuggled in a capsule to gym class that day.

To Calcula's eternal frustration for the past two years, Trunks refused to take any of their classes as seriously as she did. But it wasn't like Trunks was worried about needing good grades to get into a decent college, with his mother's name on the tuition checks, and his impressive scores, he'd be getting into whatever schools he wanted to attend.

But much to the disappointment of many a school recruiters, he only had one determining factor that would play into which college he picked, whichever one Goten was attending. His future was already secured, he would work at Capsule Corp. Whatever weird artsy school Goten wanted to go to work on drawing was fine with Trunks.

"So, have you finally got around to coming out to your parents so are you just going to let them make their inferences about the acting camp?" Inka changed the subject.

"Dude you still haven't done it yet?" Trunks asked, genuinely surprise. Subtly was only something Krayron could do when he was playing a part, it did not come naturally to him.

"No, I'm waiting to till I officially move out for college," Krayron shrugged before turning it into a glare directed at Trunks, "and you're one to fucking talk, you haven't told your parents that you're bi. And they're going to take it a lot better than my parents will."

"I'm still say Trunks is just a mechaphile ," Calcula said, "One of these days you're going to introduce me to the sexbot you've built and are currently dating."

"I'm not going to build a sexbot," Trunks said, not for the first time.

Stapular laughed, "You call your hoverbike your girlfriend, dude, I think you're already halfway there."

"First of all, Baby is my platonic girlfriend, our relationship is pure and unsullied by the perversions you try to project on it. Second, I am not giving my mother any confirmation about my dating life until I'm absolutely forced to. She's incapable of doing anything halfway, I tell her I'm bi she'll host a pride event or some shit. I tell her I'm dating _anyone _she'll start planning a wedding. Hell to the no."

Also because telling his mom would mean outing Goten to everyone and Trunks didn't want that any time soon, he liked keeping a secret just between the two of them, they hadn't even told their friends yet. Speaking of which.

"What about you Goten, going to tell your parents that you're gay?" Inka asked. Unlike Trunks who had been out for years to the group, Goten had only fessed up to Inka earlier this year after a disastrous incident where she'd tried to make a pass at him. Trunks still wasn't completely sure if Goten was telling the truth to Inka when he said he was gay or if he was just embarrassed and wanted to turn her down as gently as he could.

They'd never talked about it directly, Goten got all flustered about topics like this, and Trunks hadn't seen the need to press. Trunks knew for a fact that Goten was at least somewhat into guys, or more specifically, he knew that Goten was into _him_, and that's all that really mattered as far as Trunks was concerned.

"I don't know, yeah someday I'm going to have to, but I really don't want to have to explain it to my mom, I mean I think she'd get over it eventually, but she'd just be upset about the lack of grandchildren." Goten scrunched up his face, "Also I remember how bad my mom was when my older brother started dating, no thank you."

Trunks sighed, "Goten, ChiChi will be fine with you being gay, I mean she doesn't have a problem with your dad being bi. Even if she kicks up a fuss at first, she'll get over it."

Krayon perked up, "Wait your dad's bi? The full-time martial artist and sometimes farmer? I didn't know that was allowed."

"Yeah," Goten shrugged, a blush starting to form, he hated any discussion about his parents sex life, with good reason. But then again, it would be unsportsmanlike to just leave an obvious counterattack lying there, and Goten turned to glare at Trunks. "Besides, so is yours."

"Wait, what? Really?" Inka asked.

"Yeah, he comes from a place where it's more normal, and mom knows and everything so that's how I know they'll both be fine with it."

"What, where is that!" Krayron demanded to know. "Why haven't you mentioned this before, I want to visit it now!"

"It's a real remote place, you would have never heard of it," Trunks answered quickly.

"I swear the more you guys talk about your families the more questions I have." Calcula said, giving them both a shrewd look, studying them for signs of weakness

"You don't know the half of it," Trunks was so proud of his ability to keep a straight face, while Goten rolled his eyes.

"Okay enough about Trunks and Goten's mysterious family lives, let's talk about our plans for WaterWorld in a month!" Stapular said.

"Yeah, that's the week after acting camp, so I'll be able to make it." Krayron said with a grin, "This is great, I've never been out to Yahhoi."

"I've never been to a waterpark period," Goten said.

"Well no time like the present Ten, I'm sure you'll love it. WaterWorld was a lot of fun when I went with my folks," Trunks said, not mentioning how his father had abandoned the trip half way through when he was just overwhelmed by the crowds. "It's basically a resort with an attached waterpark. And I got a reservation for one of the villas for us all to stay at, it will be great!"

"As long as you're paying for it," Stapular laughed, "not like you can't afford it."

"Yeah, yeah, I'll pick up the tab," Trunks agreed. Being the son of the CEO of Capsule Corp came with some perks.

"Woo! This is going to be the best summer ever!" Inka cheered and the rest of them joined in.

Several days later and Trunks was heading out to Mount Pazou to hang out with Goten and get a training session in. They usually did it at Capsule Corp because of its better amenities, mainly the gravity chamber, for three sessions that lasted a few hours a week before Goten flew home in the evenings. On days they didn't train or weren't suffering under a mountain homework they usually ended up playing video games or watching dumb stuff online.

Vegeta only willingly relinquished possession of the gravity chamber to them because he knew arguing about it was liable to end up an official timeshare chart that would mean actually clocking how much time he spent in there. And that would only be used against him in future arguments.

He still griped about them not taking training seriously, because they weren't pushing themselves for 12 hours straight 300x gravity, but that was its own ongoing standoff. Both Vegeta and Goku still had trouble accepting that their kids weren't really that interested in attempting to achieve godhood.

He just liked having fun with Goten, and it just happened that training together was something they both enjoyed. They hadn't even been fighting in all their more recent training sessions, Goten had taken up a bit of an interest in dance a couple months back and had abused his puppy-dog eyes and pout to convince Trunks to give up one of their three weekly sessions to just focus on that. Granted they still had to set the chamber to 50x gravity, which was apparently the bare minimum amount that Vegeta deemed "adequate" enough to keep from making disparaging comments about it.

Trunks knew his dad just wanted what was best for him, and really was trying to be a decent parent to him and Bulla, but he also knew it wasn't easy for him.

He was flying out in his two-seat speeder, it had been his side chick project for when he felt like taking a break from working on Baby, it was actually a lot harder to get the bigger car up to the same speed as his bike. True, he could still fly faster then them both all on his own, but that wasn't the point.

He landed at Mount Pazou, but he didn't sense Goten around where he usually was. Huh. Oh well he did sense Gohan inside his house, so he went to go bother him.

"Hey Gohan, is Goten around?"

"Oh he's off training in the hills with Dad." Oh, poor Goten. "Vegeta and Bulma are out there too."

"My parents?!"

Fuck, what were they both doing all the way out here? They always made Goku come to them, he was the one with Instant Transmission. And it wasn't just his Dad flying out for a jaunt in the wilderness, Mom being here meant they had to take one of her planes, and that was a trip that must have taken hours! Something was up, what reason could they possibly have had to want to come all the way out to bother Goku about?

They weren't here to try to talk to Goku and Chichi and figure out if he and Goten were not-dating where they? No, of course not, Trunks was being paranoid. But he also took off very quickly in their direction to make sure he could overhear as much of their talk as possible.

He touched down to see Goten exhausted on the ground and his parents ragging on Goku about the tournament tomorrow, and sounded like Goten was unhappy about it. Interesting.

"Oh, so you decided to join us." Great his mom was in a mood, and taking it out on him.

"So Goten, I hear your entering the tournament tomorrow?" Trunks asked

"Yeah," Goten was glaring at Trunks, undoubtedly sensing how amused he was at his current predicament.

"I don't want to but Dad's making me, plus I had a date tomorrow too." That was a fun euphemism for Inka's planned drawing stream that Goten was going to help mod. Goten had taken to calling them dates to get his parents to stop interrupting and accuse him of not doing anything. Trunks had no clue if Inka knew she was his pseudo-cover story.

And okay was that just Trunks's imagination or was that an eye roll from his father? And Bulma looked skeptical too, or maybe she was just _that _annoyed at Goku and Trunks. Yeah, that was it.

"Quit whining, you can go on a date any day," Goku said.

"Hah, looks like both all our sons have become slackers when it comes to training." See, it was bullshit sniping like this that Trunks had to put up with.

Goku laughed, "Yeah… but at least that means the world's at peace."

Trunks sensed what felt like a small ball of ki approaching at a fast pace, and he looked up just in time to see Pan drop down and come running at them.

"Grandpa! I just flew around the world!" She was also incapable of not ending a sentence with a metaphorical exclamation mark attached.

"Great! I think that was your fastest time yet!"

"YAY! I'm getting better!" She looked around in surprise to see more people present then she was expecting, "Oh! Hiya everyone! You guys gonna come see me tomorrow?"

Trunks felt a feeling of dread creeping up his spine, "Is, uh, Pan going to be entering the Tournament too?"

"Yep yep!"

"What? But there's no longer a kids division!" Bulma scolded, "You're not going to let her fight with the grownups, Goku?!"

Vegeta scoffed,"Saiyan children were often sent to conquer planets, I hardly think a tournament is going to pose much of a challenge for the girl."

"Yeah don't worry, she'll be fine," Goku agreed, patting Pan on her head. "She probably won't win, but she'll do okay, she's got the most moxie out of any of us.

That was… putting it mildly. Pan was enthusiasm incarnated in the form of an adorable girl who thought the "funnest" thing in the world was fighting. She had all that Saiyan enthusiasm for fighting that seemed to have skipped the rest of them.

"And you say there's going to be an Earthling of potential that will attend… I think I will attend as well," Vegeta said.

Oh good, that meant Trunks could have some peace and quiet and spend some quality time with his Side Chick, he'd really needed to get a look at her capacitors if he had any hope of getting her up to a serviceable-

"Which means that you will be participating as well Trunks!"

"What! But I have plans!"

"Well you're going to be canceling them or your allowance is going to be cut in half."

"WHAT!"

Goten, the absolute traitor, burst out laughing. "Oh no, looks like you'll have to be there too." He gave one of those smug grins he saved exclusively for when he thought Trunks was getting a rightful comeuppance. What a terrible best friend.

"It's not even your money, it's mom's money." Trunks was not above sulking. But he was ignored.

Bulma was instead focusing on the opportunity presented to her, "Well if all of you are going to be there, we might as well make a big day of it. I'll call up the gang and see who can make it, oh we can even have a big dinner afterwards! I'll call around and find a restaurant that will let us let us reserve the whole place, it'll have to be one with a big kitchen, gods know we'll need it with seven Saiyans.

"Oh and Trunks," she broke her rambling to shoot her son a piercing glare, "You're going to be flying back home with us, we're going to be discussing the lack of schools you've been applying to."

Fuck. His. Life.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two - I Swear One Day I Will Beat You Fair And Square**

**(Trunks)**

Since West City was so much closer to the where the Budokai Tournament was taking place, the Son family had taken the Goku Instant Transmission Express to get them to Capsule Corp in the morning before they all took one of the large jets to the Tournament grounds.

The place was a lot more crowded and had more fanfare than Trunks recalled from the last time he'd gone. Both the place and the tournament had been built up in more recent years with Buu being a star of the ring. Between his playful demeanor and bizarre powers had made him a darling of the fans and a ratings juggernaut. But of course at the end of an incredible series of matches, he'd always somehow lose to the undefeated World Champion Hercule Satan.

As they walked into the grounds Trunks savored the short period of anonymity the large crowds granted them, most people weren't even giving them a second look as they walked past the food stalls and the people hawking merchandise with Buu and Satan's faces all over it. They were just another two families here to enjoy the day watching the tournament, nothing special or notable about them. Certainly not a group that contained nearly all of this universe's entire population of an old alien race, and would be making up half the roster of the finalists all on their own.

Of course this illusion was broken when they finally heard a familiar voice.

"GOKU!" Krillin called out, and when they looked in the direction it came from there were a bunch of familiar faces. Oh wow, Trunks was surprised his mom was able to get such a good turnout on short notice, maybe everyone else just didn't have anything better to do with their time. Krillin of course came with No 18 and Marron, but next to them was Roshi and Oolong, Yamcha and Puar. Piccolo was also here of course, but even Dende had taken the day off of being God of Earth to come watch their match.

"Hey guys! Goku called back as they walked over. "You're all looking good. Nice to see you!"

Krillin's wide smile dimmed slightly, "Don't you start that again! Do you know how long it's been since we last saw each other, it was over a year ago!"

"Oh yeah, sorry about that," Goku said and dropped his arm he'd been waving to scratching the back of his head. "You know how it gets, sometimes I just sort of forget that we haven't talked lately."

Krillin sighed, "You know you're lucky to have a best friend who is so understanding."

Goku smiled, "Yeah, you really are the best Krillin." Then he turned to look at the rest of the assembled faces, "Oh Piccolo, you entering?"

"Please, and put myself through that," Piccolo scoffed. "I'm perfectly happy being a spectator today."

Pan ran up and jumped at him to get her mandatory hug, "Will you watch me Uncle Piccolo!"

Piccolo caught her reflexively and once he saw her his stoicism melted like a marshmallow in the sun. "Of course Pan, I'll be cheering for you."

"We all will, I can't wait to see what such a tiny whipper snapper like you is capable of," Roshi said and Pan beamed at him.

"You guys might want to hustle, registration isn't going to be open for much longer." Yamcha warned.

"Oh yeah, we better hurry," Goku said. Trunks was filled with the sudden desire to drag his feet on principal now.

Gohan crotched down to talk to his daughter, "Now Pan, make sure you always stay where someone can see you. Don't go running off on your own now."

Vegeta scoffed, "That's hardly necessary, there isn't anyone here who could pose an actual threat to her." The "and if there is they won't be alive much longer" went unsaid but Trunks could make it out easily, and so could Gohan.

"It's not Pan I'm worried about being in danger, it's everyone and everything else, she always has a way to find mischief wherever she goes, and that's only if she's not making it herself."

Goten rolled his eyes, "Don't worry Gohan, we'll keep an eye on her and prevent her from destroying anything beyond her opponent's dignity."

"Thanks Goten. Alright have a good tournament everyone!"

The preliminaries were an absolute cake-walk, no surprises there. There were 114 participants this year, and they'd gone back to the preliminary matches which Goku said was the norm back in the days he fought in every tournament. Trunks had vague recollections of punch machines being used for the adult competition from when he was a kid, but for some reason they'd retired that practice. Thankfully the five of them and Buu were spread out across the brackets that none of them were going to face off till the actual tournament.

Trunks had finished up with his matches first when he saw he'd gotten a text from Calcula that she was waiting outside the Contestant's Courtyard, and went to meet her.

"Trunks!" She yelled, and glared at the guard who was trying to keep her back. Trunks waved him off after reassuring him he wasn't going to take off, just talk to a friend.

"What are you doing here?" He asked trying to not let the panic he was feeling slip into his voice. He didn't want her seeing any fight that he had to be serious about.

"Well I _was_ going to try to get seats for the Tournament, but you only told me yesterday you were fighting and people have been camping out for tickets for days." Oh thank Dende. "So I guess I'm just going to be wishing you and Goten luck, where is he?"

"Still doing prelims, he was in the last bracket of them."

"Well phooey, I'm going to be leaving soon, if I make it back home quick enough I can still catch Inka's drawing stream. But I heard you guys brought your families with you, anyone you can introduce me too real quick?"

Trunks looked around, their families had already left the area, but out of the corner of his eye a familiar head of hair poked his head out of the doors he'd just walked through, probably looking to see where Trunks had gone.

"Well here's one of them! Hey Goku! Get over here!"

Goku obliged and wandered over.

"Oh you must be Goten's older brother, he's talked a lot about you, and Pan is your little girl! I've seen pictures of her, she's adorable!"

Goku laughed, "Nope, that's Gohan, he's my oldest son, I'm their dad, which makes Pan my granddaughter!"

"Really, you don't look more than a few years older than Goten, and you have a granddaughter?" Calcula sounded suspicious, and not without good reason, Goku really didn't look, or act, his age.

Goku of course picked up none of it, instead just laughing and scratching the back of his head, "Just good genes I guess."

_Please don't say we're aliens,_ Trunks prayed with a fervor he usually reserved for when he was trying to send messages to Dende. And hey maybe Dende was listening because two loud yells echoed through the courtyard at that moment.

"_Kakarot!""Dad!"_

"Oh gotta go, Pan's last match is about to start." Goku took off back into the building.

Just as he was leaving, Marron came walking over from the spectator's side of the park. "Hey Trunks, you guys done cleaning out the prelims yet? Oh who's your friend?"

"Yeah Trunks, introduce me!" Calcula elbowed him.

"Marron this is Calcula, she's a friend from school," he punctuated the greeting with a pointed look to warn her not to say too much. "Calcula this is Marron, and old family friend."

"Marron, if you're a friend of the family then surely you know that man who was just talking to us, the one who went back into the building?" Before Marron could respond Calcula barreled on, eager to catch Trunk in his deception, "Was that actually Goten's dad or was it his older brother trying to pull a prank on me?"

"Nope, I can confirm, that is the one and only Son Goku. And I would know, my dad has been best friends with him since they were kids. He really just is that youthful."

"Oh, is your father a fighter too?"

"Retired now, but yeah. They actually attended the same martial arts school together when they were teenagers. And the first time my mom and Trunks's dad met they fought. I'm told she broke his arms." Marron had the exact same smile on her face and cheerful tone no matter what she was talking about, and she'd learned to weaponize it over the years.

Trunks sighed, "And you are never going to let that go, are you?" Marron hadn't even be alive during the whole thing with Cell.

"Never."

"Wow, you guys really are martial arts fanatics," Calcula said. "I thought Goten was exaggerating a bit."

Marron shrugged, "It's kind of our group's thing. I mean geez, Trunks does Goten even have any relatives that aren't current or former martial artists?"

"Yeah," Trunks said defensively and before he could think better of it.

"Oh yeah, who?" Marron challenged with a gleam in her eye and Trunks only just realized he'd walked into a trap.

"Uh." Trunks said as he frantically rolled through his mental index. Goku and Gohan were obviously out. He knew ChiChi had helped train Goten when he was little and had even fought Goku in one of these tournaments, which oh no that was a train of thought for a different day. Hadn't Ox-King trained under Kame school when he was younger, so had Goku's Grandpa Gohan actually. Fuck, this was hard, Trunks was starting to panic as he stared down Calcula's increasingly incredulous gaze and Marron's growing grin. Videl? Satan? Piccolo? Buu?

"Um...my mom?" He offered. Marron started cackling with laughter.

Calcula was much less amused, "Really, that's what you're going with?"

"Shut up." Trunks glared at her. Marron finally stopped laughing long enough to add, "I mean, he's not wrong, that _is_ probably the closest Goten has."

Calcula's phone alert went and she glanced down at it, "And my ride is here, so I'm heading out now. Have a good tournament! Give my best to Goten, and however many members of your families that are fighting. Bye, see you at WaterWorld!"

"She seems nice. For a normie."

"Stop it," Trunks groaned. Calcula was probably going to talk to Stapular and Inka about just how young Goten's dad was. Great, that was going to be a fun topic when they met up at the waterpark.

The doors to the building slammed open and out came a tiny Pan running at them at full speed.

"Trunks! Trunks! I finished the pre-luminaries!" Pan yelled at the top of her lungs.

"Preliminaries," Goten corrected as he followed behind her a few moments later, their dads not much further behind. Looks like Goku had told them all where Trunks was.

"Yeah those! Oh hi Marron! I like your pigtails!" Pan volume still hadn't dropped a single register, oh boy was she excited.

"Thanks, but only Oolong is allowed to call them pigtails, everyone else calls them twin-tails, Pan."

"Is it because he's a piggy?"

"Yes, it makes him feel special and like he's among friends. How did the prelims go Pan?"

Pan stuck out her tongue, "I won but it was dumb."

Goten, smiled and ruffled her hair, "Her last guy apparently decided he was going to forfeit because his vow of fighting wouldn't allow him to hurt a defenseless child. You know after having watched her wipe the floor with the rest of her competition."

Marron laughed again, "Oh taking the moral highroad that also prevents him from getting his shit kicked in by the Saiyan child. So the Hercule Satan method, nice. Oh! Speaking of which," she rounded on Goten. "I was elected messenger to deliver the news that all the seats are taken, apparently it's a big turnout. Use your charms and get us decent seats from Satan."

"Why Goten?" Trunks asked, she'd been talking to him first and hadn't brought it up.

"Because he's actually got the charm needed to actually get us seats," she snarked back just as quick before turning to Goten. "Go. Talk. With. Satan." She punctuated each word with a prod to his chest, which Goten allowed.

"Oh! Oh! I wanna go say hi to Grandpa Satan!"

"I never get tired of hearing her say those words," Trunks said wistfully.

"Hercule encourages her to call him like that in public," Goten sighed. "Something about it being better for branding purposes."

"It's just a shame Piccolo won't let her call him Uncle Demon King, or we could really cause a ruckus here," Marron laughed.

Goku was at least amused "I don't think that would be a good idea, I remember the last time we were here he was specifically asked to not blow up the stadium again."

"Huh, so I guess Vegeta just missed that memo?" Oh shit, too far Marron. Vegeta agreed and gave a warning noise in her direction that could be best described as a growl.

"And that's my cue to leave, save the aggression for each other!" She gave a cheeky wave and took off running in the opposite direction.

"Come on Dad, don't you want to go see Hercule's face when he hears there's five Saiyans entering?" Trunks bartered to keep his dad's mood from souring quicker. Vegeta didn't give a verbal response, but his glower ticked up into an angry smirk, which was good enough.

Backstage Satan greeted them warmly when they interrupted his pre-tournament lounging, and cooed over Pan. "Did you come all the way just to cheer on your Grandfather?"

"Nope I'm fightin'!" Hercule's eyes widened but they got bigger as she continued, "And so is Grandpa Goku, an' Goten, an' Trunks, an' Uncle Vegeta too." She rattled them off as if she was naming all the flavors of ice cream she wanted on her cone. Hercule's face of despair was not unlike the ice cream vendors too come to think of it as they tried to figure out how to fit 15 scoops on one cone.

"Obviously the five of us made it through the prelims," Goku added and Hercule looked down the hall at them.

He and Goten were dorking around while Vegeta just sulked against the walls like an antisocial weirdo, which he was. "Hey dude!" They yelled in unison and oh yeah that face fault from Hercule was amazing to witness.

"Oh don't worry," Goku reassured the World Champion, "If any of us make it to the finals we have no problem letting you win." Hercule was ecstatic at the concession, which Trunks wasn't sure why, not like any of them cared about the title or wanted that much attention.

"Though it's always possible someone besides us or Buu makes it to the end," Goku added.

"Oh you, you're such a kidder. There's no way that could happen! I mean between you and Vegeta! I mean I saw you at that Zeno Expo, no way anyone here could come close to those foxes."

"Excuse me, Mr. Satan," Goten interrupted. "Our friends and family are here to see us, but there's no more seats, and we wanted to know if you could do something?"

"Oh sure, I can do that!" Hercule just seemed happy to be contributing, "I'll give them the best seats in the house!"

With that taken care of, they went back downstairs to the green room where some of the other finalists were milling around until things started. There was some luxury couches and a spread of food which was probably very expensive and impressive for an Earthling but was barely a snack counter for one of them. Regardless Goku pulled Vegeta over to investigate the offerings, Pan darting ahead going straight for the sweets.

Which meant they were distracted enough that Trunks was able to pull Goten out into a secluded alcove of the hallway where no one could see or overhear them.

"You know it's funny," Goten said as he was still looking around the hall, "This place sure seems smaller than it did last time I was here."

Trunks shrugged, "I mean makes sense we're a lot bigger than we were then, don't even have to steal a costume to compete with the adults this time. But still today could be fun, who knows how it will turn out."

Goten sighed, "I don't know, I don't see anything really that special about it. I mean the only reason we're here is because Dad wants to try to meet someone new. Our only competition is going to be the same people we came here with, and if I wanted to make the mistake of fighting with your Dad I can do that away from onlookers."

"Well now, maybe we'll get lucky and you and I square off, maybe a little repeat of last time we were here." Trunks grinned.

Goten glared. "I think it'll end a bit differently this time. After all you only won cause you're an unrepentant cheater."

"It's not cheating, it's playing smart. Not my fault you don't take all the advantages you can get. But if it makes you more agreeable I'll agree to a fair fight with you if you agree to my terms."

"Which are?"

"Private wager."

Goten, eyes narrowed with suspicion, because he wasn't stupid. "What for, you don't need the money from the tournament prizes."

"One night where Loser has to do _anything_ the winner wants." Trunks made sure to use his seductive voice, the one he knew Goten reacted to, and sure enough he could see the shiver go down Goten's spine.

"Anything?" Goten clarified, voice already a little husky at the thought.

Trunks leaned in closer so he could say whisper the next part directly into Goten's pinkening ears.

"I always thought you'd look great in a maid outfit," Trunks said with a shit-eating grin that Goten couldn't see. "What do you think Ten, you could call me Master and everything."

Goten's breath hitched and the next words were whispered back with venom, "That's an awfully bold claim, Trunks, you sure you would be okay with losing. I mean what if I want you to dress up if I win?"

"I'd do it, I'd do anything for my master." Trunks tried his best to imitate the breathy voice acting he'd heard once come from one of Stapular's games.

"Right, because you have no sense of shame," Goten sighed. "Besides why would that be an incentive for you to play fair, I'd think it would make you all the more eager to cheat. Because you're a cheating cheater."

Trunks shrugged, "I can take anything you dish out, Ten even without playing smart. And besides the bet is already rigged in my favor, even ifI lose I still win the long game. Now come on, are you gonna agree or not."

"Well aren't the two of you just the most adorable sight, can anyone get in on this wager?"

At the new voice they sprang apart, fuck Trunks hadn't sensed anyone coming. But then again, he wasn't used to trying to keep his senses tuned to such low levels of ki. It was one of the other finalists, he was shirtless but had leather pants and a leather cap. And he was looking at them with a hungry gaze.

Oh right, because Trunks had just been pinning Goten against the wall.

"Uh," Trunks said as he was frantically scrambling to come up with some explanation.

"Will all finalists please gather at the entrance, we're about to enter the stadium." The Tournament Announcer's voice rang out through the building's intercom system. Oh thank fuck. Goten practically flash-stepped around Trunks and the guy in leather as he fled the scene, with Trunks not that far behind him.

They joined the assembled fighters who were gathered near the Announcer as he began reading off their names to confirm the contestants. The old man was beaming when he read off Goku's name and was practically giddy when he realized Goku had brought some familiar faces. He paused when he saw that Son Pan was a tiny girl and looked back at Goku for an explanation.

"She's my grand-daughter!" Like that was explanation enough and he wasn't wrong.

"Say no more! I see you're starting her young, I'm sure she'll be a star. Ah and speaking of which, the finalists of the 25th Junior division are here, you boys will try to keep the rules in mind this time, won't you?" He gave them both a look over the tops of his sunglasses. Announcer was alright.

"We'll try." Goten promised.

As they all walked out to the main stage where the tournament drawing would take place Trunks noticed how many of Buu's fans in the audience were female, that was… unexpected.

Announcer was getting the crowd geared up, "And now time for the drawing of names, it's a single-elimination match-ups where the winner will then go on to face Mr. Satan!?

Trunks noticed Goten looking around at the other finalists, "You see anyone here that matches what your Dad was talking about? Unearthly strong for an Earthling?"

"Nah. Not yet."

Since half of the finalists where either related to them by blood, or where just Hercule's perpetual freeloader and houseguest, there weren't that many possible contenders.

There was a tall guy with a ponytail who was doing his best to look intimidating, an arrogant guy who thought wearing a bandana on his head was a good fashion choice, and a blonde dude who looked pretty composed and had a sizable amount of ki but nothing that noteworthy about him.

There was also a man in a giant chicken costume. Which, enough said, that man was already well aware of how much a joke he was and was leaning into it.

The man in leather they'd bumped into backstage was still watching them, and Goten was getting flustered by the attention. Great, last thing Goten needed when he was trying to stay in the closet around their families was this attention.

Finally there was a little boy with dark skin, guess Pan wasn't the only kid competing. Hopefully he put up a good show, if Trunks was matched against him he'd go easy on him, wouldn't want to discourage the kid after all.

During the drawing of numbers, Trunks noticed Goku and Vegeta whispering furiously to each other before pulling Buu into their conversation. Huh wonder what that was about.

And Goten was the first to draw and ended up with an 8. That meant Trunks needed a 7 to face him, or maybe the 5 or 6 to do it in the second round. Instead he ended up with a 9. Fuck. His second match would now be against his father and that meant he'd never get to fight Goten today.

Goten was not happy either, "This is so unfair! I have to fight Buu in the first round!"

Trunks laughed, "Luck of the draw I guess!" before leaning in and whispering a lot quieter into Goten's ear, "Guess we'll be modifying our private wager, first one to lose a match loses. Don't worry, I'm sure we'll both have a fun victory party." The despair in Goten's face was incredible.

Goku was also in agreement, "Serves you right for blowing off your training to go have fun with Trunks." Trunks rolled his eyes at Goku, he was just like his father, refusing to call the sparring he and Goten did as anything but "playing around" just because they weren't as serious about it as their dads.

"If anyone should be upset it's me!" The big guy who went by Mo Kekko said as he approached them. Oh so the other half of the fighters were coming to gather around to check out their competition."I'm supposed to get in a ring with that little brat! I didn't come here to sing nursery songs!"

Pan clung to Goku's leg at the waves of hostility from the big guy before sticking out her tongue at him. The giant oaf continued, "How did a kid like you even make it through the preliminaries, I'll never know."

If he had an inkling of what any of them were capable of, he'd be probably the bravest man in the universe for trying to intimidate Pan in front of the rest of them. Not that she wasn't completely capable of handling herself against a weak-ass Earthling like him.

But then Trunks's first competitor had to come and open his mouth, "Oh how wonderful, you look like a nice strong young man, I can tell we'll just have the best time together."

Goten, delight in his eyes, "Oh man, you're so lucky, can we trade?" Clearly enjoying Trunks's discomfort. Hah hah, Goten would be singing a different tune if he had to face Otokosuki, Trunks had seen for himself how anxious Goten got when people he didn't know tried to flirt with him, much less a shirtless dude in leather who was twice their age.

Then again if Otokosuki had tried hitting on Goten, Trunks would probably end up disqualified from the whole tournament. He didn't come here today with the intention of killing a man but he was not going to rule it out. Besides, not like his dad wouldn't back him up.

But of course none of this pre-tournament talk could compare to bandana-head himself Nok coming over and thinking the best course of action was to try to yell trash talk at Vegeta, who completely ignored him.

"Hey old man! I'm talking to you gramps!" Oh he was trying to get a rise, Vegeta did look a bit older than Goku, but not my that much, more in his 20s then a possible teenager. Maybe it was the widows peak. "What are you trying to ignore me, well you won't be able to ignore me when I'm kicking your ass!"

And then he leaned over to laugh into Vegeta's face. Trunks cringed, there was no one as touchy about his personal space as his Dad was. And sure enough Vegeta's response to his personal space being violated was to offhandedly slap him so he went flying back 10 yards and off the stage.

The rest of them burst into laughter, while Vegeta casually told their wide-eyed competition,"Tell the officials we've had the first forfeit."

After that, the rest of the fighters gave their group a wider berth when they went back to the locker rooms, and Trunks didn't know if it was the death glare Vegeta sent at any of them who approached their corner of changing rooms or the blasé reaction his punch garnered from the rest of them.

Trunks wasn't oblivious to how they sometimes came across. A strange little group of people who were outsiders to the Earth's Professional Martial Arts scene but were unsurprised by phenomenal feats of strength that put the whole scene to shame, and all very familiar with each other. They practically screamed, "We're secretive and cloistered because we know something you don't.''

But Trunks didn't want any of that attention, Satan could have the credit for saving the world and everything that fame brought him, the good and the bad. Trunks came here because it was somehow a family bonding thing for his dad.

The staring only increased when the reclusive and camera-shy daughter of Hercule Satan, Videl Satan knocked at the door with her husband. "Is everyone decent in there? I'd like to wish my daughter luck before her first fight." Trunks could see the cogs turning in the other competitor's heads as she and her even rarer seen husband entered and walked right past Vegeta giving him a friendly greeting and getting an acknowledging grunt in return. It couldn't have been clearer that she was "with them."

Well except for that little boy who looked worried and off in his own little head. Poor kid.

Pan jumped up when her name was called. "Oh boy! It's my turn!"

Videl gave her one last hug, "You'll do great sweetie! You give him a good punch for mommy, we'll be watching from the box with everyone else."

"Of course!"

The Announcer was hyping up the crowd by billing her as the "Grand-Daughter of the Savior of Earth, Mr. Satan!"

Whatever big match Mo Kekko was expecting was denied him when Pan got the first hit of the match, a slap that sent him careening across the stage. By the time he'd staggered to his feet, she'd already delivered a kick to his legs which sent him flying into the wall. Literally into it, as he left a sizable impression in the stonework.

And after Announcer gave a quick check to make sure he wasn't dead, "Pan is the winner!"

The crowd was dead silent before it came to life and roared their appreciation of the match as Pan skipped back into the building. Satan himself showed up moments later, staggering in behind her, "You sure you're alright?"

"Yup-Yup! Easy as pie!"

Trunks sighed, "Of course she's fine."

"Now it's my turn!" Goku announced, and he turned to the terrified kid to shake his hand, "Best of luck out there, don't hold back!" The boy was apprehensive but shook Goku's hand politely.

After the two of them walked out, Goten climbed up on top of the big sign that blocked the doorway, hanging off it to get a good look at the match.

"Geez, my dad sure is eager to fight the kid, what gives?"

"Kakarot believes the boy to be the reincarnation of the malevolent form of Buu."

Wait what. Trunks immediately hoisted himself up next to Goten to get a look for himself. If that was true then this was a fight he had to see.

**(Marron)**

Well, the second try worked out. After the embarrassing first option of seats put them squarely in the line of view of the entire stadium, Videl was able to rearrange their seating to get them a private box.

Much better.

Everyone relaxed in the room, away from the prying eyes of strangers.

"At least we're not the only ones having problems getting seats, I saw a bunch of people turned away at the entrance because they were out of space," said Yamcha.

Marron piped up, "Yeah I talked to one of Trunks's classmates who couldn't get in, so she settled for just wishing Trunks and Goten luck and left. Trunks was so relieved."

"Oh, who was she?" Bulma asked with far too much interest in the answer, ChiChi had also perked up and listened, so of course Marron's only choice was to obfuscate. She shrugged. "I don't know, a girl."

Then, quickly changing the topic to deny them a chance to ask further questions, Marron continued, "She thought Goku was Pan's dad at first, asked me if Trunks was trying to pull one over on her."

"Can't blame them," Krillin groaned, "Goku looks like he could pass for a teenager. Curse those Saiyan genes."

Gohan groaned, "Tell me about it, my colleagues keep confusing me with freshman at the university. I think official nickname among the students is Professor Babyface."

Videl patted his shoulder, "Don't worry honey, I think you can manage to pull off the look rather well."

"Just wait till Pan hits her teens and people assume all four of you are siblings," Marron said through her giggles.

At that both Chichi and Gohan made the same loud noise that was less words and more a deep grumbling from their very souls.

"It's not funny," Gohan scowled at Marron when she burst into full laughter.

"Oh stop complaining, Gohan," No 18 said, her bored tone never changing a beat as she spoke. "You're not the only ones who have extended youth. At least you didn't have your body torn down and rebuilt on the cellular level by Dr. Gero to get it."

Marron watched with delight how many more of the Dragon gang clamored shut at her mother's words, not comfortable with the reminder of just what becoming an Android had entailed. Only her father and herself were used to her mother's blunt nature and disregard for social etiquette and thus unaffected.

"That's why you got the mom haircut, right Mom? So people would stop calling you my older sister?" She asked, knowing full well the answer to why her mother had cut her hair so short, but also knowing that no one else was going to have a decent follow up to No 18's last statement and wanted to take it easy on them.

"Yes. That and it's easier to intimidate the sales clerks, they already know I'm prepared to talk to their managers if their assistance is subpar. It's much more efficient this way and I don't have to break any bones."

There was an awkward pause as before some halting titters followed. Yamcha was the only one who actually said anything, "You know 18, I can never tell if you're joking or not."

"Good."

Krillin sighed loudly and Marron giggled again. She loved her parents.

"Oh hey they're coming out now!" Ox-King said and everyone sat up to look at the parade of contestants walking to the main stage.

"Is that a man in a chicken costume?" Gohan asked.

Puar sighed, "Oh Tenkaichi Budokai, never change you crazy collection of weirdos."

Oolong elbowed him, "Hopefully we won't have to blow up the moon when _someone _grows a tail back this time. Roshi, Piccolo, you guys on standby?"

"Please don't," Dende asked, no small amount of pleading in his voice, "It would really cause a lot of problems for me, the tide ecosystem is fragile enough as it is."

Gohan laughed awkwardly, "I don't think that's likely, it's been years and years since Dad and Vegeta had theirs and I mean the boys and Pan weren't even born with tails. I think it was because it had been so long since any of us had tails before they were born. My current theory is that Saiyans actually have an evolutionary tract that's more similar to the style of Lamarckian-"

Bulma groaned and waved a hand at Gohan while not taking her eyes off the stage. "Gohan not now, we can talk about evolutionary theories later. I came here to see my husband and son make ridiculous fools out of themselves." Then looking over the competition her attention settled on the big dude who answered to Mo Kekko, "He looks pretty big."

No 18 scoffed, "Oh please, he's all show, sure he's big but I doubt he could back it up."

"I don't know," Bulma sing-songed but didn't try to argue her point more than that.

No 18 turned to her husband, "Krillin why didn't you sign up, you had to know the field was going to be this weak right?"

"Are you joking, sure some of these guys are jokes, but there's no way I could win against Goku!" Krillin retorted.

No 18 sighed, "All I know is I won when I entered, even if I did let Satan claim the ultimate title. Least I got paid for taking the dive."

Marron interrupted them before they really got going on that topic, "Oh hey! It's Pan's turn to get a ball!" That got everyone's attention and everyone watched as Pan drew her number and she was facing off against Mo Kekko. Ooh that would be fun to watch.

The rest of the matchups were much less promising in their entertainment value until Trunks pulled his ball.

"Oh hey, Trunks gets to fight the Leather Daddy," Marron commented.

That got a reaction,

"Marron, why are you calling that… gentleman by that name." Yamcha said, stammering out around his own embarrassment.

"Well I mean," she gestured to the leather clad man with a hat and whose attention was laser focused on Trunks and Goten, "what else would I call him? You know I'm right."

"He's just, um," Yamcha attempted to respond but No 18 interrupted him before he could get out anything cognizant, "He probably thinks Trunks is a twink, or what's the muscular version called? A twunk?"

"Mommy stop it, clearly Trunks would be a jock."

Bulma glowered at them, "Both of you stop it. My little boy is just fine the way he is."

"I'm not saying he's not, I'm just saying his lavender hair is probably why the Leather Daddy has him confused for a twink right now," Marron responded. Well, that or the fact that he hadn't taken his hand off of Goten's shoulder this entire time, but Marron had enough tact not to point it out directly to Bulma's face.

Krillin was apologetic, "I'm sorry Bulma, it's someone's edgy teenager phase right now."

No 18 huffed, "Marron's fine, my edgy teenager phase involved much more car theft and wanton destruction and she hasn't gotten to that yet."

"Maybe I just haven't found the right car yet," Marron countered.

Their conversation was interrupted when Vegeta decided to backhanded his opponent clear off the stage and into a sign ten yards behind them.

"Yep, that's Vegeta," Bulma sighed, completely unsurprised. "Mmhmm," murmured half the box, equally unsurprised, in fact Marron was sure they were all impressed that he was able to resist for this long. The only exception for Bulla who was loudly cheering, "That was awesome! Do it again!"

Videl stood up when the fighters began to walk back into the building, "Gohan, let's go down and talk to Pan before her match."

"Oh, that's a good idea."

As the two of them slipped out Marron moved over to give Bulla some advice, "Bulla, when you order people around you should always say, 'By order of your princess'. After all you are one, you want people to pay their proper respects."

"I _am_ a princess." Bulla was having a revelation, and if it was possible for a four year old to sound moments away from going mad with power, that was it.

Bulma glared, "Don't give her ideas, she might actually listen to you. Krillin, control your daughter!"

"What makes you think I have any ability to do that? Do you not remember my track record with getting teenage girls to listen to me, or have you completely forgotten the pirate caves?"

Bulma made a face, clearly annoyed Krillin had a point, "That was different, I could bully Goku into listening to me."

"Got it, to do what I want, I need to make a Saiyan listen to me and do my dirty work."

"No!" Bulma and Krillin both yelled, but Marron ignored them.

"I don't know, I think that strategy is pretty sound," said No 18, completely uncaring about the several withering glares directed her way.

Chatter in the box continued until Gohan and Videl made it back to the box just in time for Pan's match to start up.

"Pan! Don't break him!" Bulla yelled to her best friend as she walked out, "By orders of your princess!"

Pan's match ended moments after starting with an easy victory for the girl and a wonderfully dramatic response from the crowd.

"Goku is up next!" Krillin shouted happily as everyone else jostled to get a good view.

Piccolo was more brusque with his response, "This will be the only fight of this tournament that matters."

"I'd say so." Dende agreed.

Marron perked up, that sounded ominous, so both the Earth-Namekians thought the little boy was special? Marron focused all her attention on the boy, trying to get a read on his ki. It was definitely odd, it wasn't just that he was suppressing his energy, that was a common enough but there was something else about it.

Despite not doing much fighting herself Marron always had an uncanny ability to sense ki, maybe it was just growing up surrounded by people with ridiculous amounts of it or something about the fact that she spent her time as a fetus gestating 9 inches away from an infinite energy core. Either way growing up she got a lot of practice at being able to track the various notable ki levels of the gang and she was fairly experienced at knowing how to read people now.

But Uub's felt different. There certainly seemed like there was a large reserve there but it also felt a little evanescent, not completely there. Was it just because he was suppressing it differently? Or maybe he didn't have full access to it. Strange.

He looked terrified of Goku and the match was off to a slow start as Goku got a few blows in before finally something must have clicked on and the boy took a running dash and landed a blow that Goku blocked but Marron could see Goku's ki field around his forearm where the hit landed was smarting. Oh man that kid was _strong. _And that wasn't even his only move as he and Goku darted around and started to wreck the stage with their speed and strength.

"Where has this kid hiding?" Krillin yelled as the entire box was stunned by the site of a young boy managing to keep up with Goku in base.

But then suddenly the fight was over and Goku was just talking to the kid for a bit before they seemed to have reached some understanding. Goku then turned and flew up to their box.

Gohan leaned out to meet him, "What's up, Dad?"

"Not much. I'm just going to have to go live with this kid in his village for a while, so I can train him to use his powers to protect the Earth."

Oh just that then, yeah nothing much about that. But judging by the loud and frustrated protests from Krillin, Bulma, and ChiChi it sounded like they didn't agree.

ChiChi was in hysterics "Not again!"

"GOKU!" Bulma yelled, in the voice that Marron would forever remember hearing a drunken Oolong once described as, "Oh great, the monkey boy is groping people in public again" voice.

"I don't know how long this training will take, might be a few years, hold down the fort till I get back!" Goku said, either completely oblivious to how distressed he was making everyone, or more likely just not caring.

"You're leaving? For years!? Dad!" Gohan yelled, like this was suddenly a new experience for him. Which Marron didn't know why she'd heard more than enough stories to prove the contrary. Maybe it was just for effect.

Goku ignored them and then flew down to where Trunks and Goten were in front of the building. Marron leaned out the window to try to get a better view but it was hard to make out what was being said.

Pan came running over to Goku in tears, and oh no how was Goku going to resist this. Marron focused all her attention on their energy signatures below and after a moment the angry grumblings of the box's spectators faded into the background and she was able to make out what was being said.

"...it won't be that long, and I'll only be on the other side of the Earth, and I'll come and visit."

"You swear?" Pan choked out around her tears.

"Yeah, it's a promise. Besides, there's no need to cry, you're a warrior. One of the strongest kind there is."

"Okay," Pan wasn't happy about it but her tears had at least stopped.

Goku turned his attention to the boys and Marron widened her focus to their energy to hear their voices too.

"You two need to keep up your training too, like I told Uub, it's going to be up to you guys to protect the Earth in the future. I won't be around forever. And take care of each other."

Trunks and Goten exchanged a glance and nodded voiced their agreement.

"I'll train too, Grandpa!" Pan added, "I'll get stronger and stronger so I can protect the Earth just like the boys!"

"Great, that's the spirit."

Goku looked over at Vegeta, oh boy how was this going to go? Marron had to hear this. "Hey Vegeta, sorry I'm taking off now, I know I dragged you all the way out here for nothing."

"Doesn't matter, Vegeta snorted, "not like we could have tested our real strength, we'd have destroyed this entire stadium before we got warmed up."

Then they did their stupid they they sometimes did where held a telepathic conversation with their locked gazes which unfortunately Marron couldn't overhear. They broke after a moment with Goku laughing, "Hey that's the truth. See ya around, buddy."

Goku went back to the ring and took off flying with Uub and if Marron hadn't still been keyed into Vegeta's energy she wouldn't have picked up what he added under his breath, "Yeah right, this isn't about protecting the Earth at all, you're just eager for a good fight." And she couldn't be certain, but she was pretty sure his last words, even softer than the rest, were a _very fond "I swear, you'll be the death of me Kakarot."_

Wait was that like a sweet nothing for kismesis? Oh no, that was both hilarious and somewhat adorable. Thank the gods she had such an amazing poker face, otherwise Marron wouldn't be able to look at him without cracking up next time she saw Vegeta.

But still, that Earthling nobody sure had been packing some real power, and at such a young age. Marron grinned over the din of the noise of the box around her. Looked like things were finally getting interesting around here. She couldn't wait to see what was going to happen next.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three: You And I Will Be Painting Pictures In The Sky

**(Trunks)**

The rest of the tournament was canceled due to Goku and Uub ditching and ruining the tournament bracket, along with the ring. Granted between the flashiness of the fight between and the complete lack of a reaction from the people they came with, the rest of the fighters seemed more than a little bit relieved.

If anything the person who was most upset about the day's events, besides the heartbroken Announcer, was Pan. She had come here for a tournament fighting and would not be satisfied with only one match, indeed she was not mollified until both Buu and Goten both agreed to give her a couple of exposition matches.

The first fight was a wild one, Pan's unstoppable enthusiastic force had met its match against Buu's immovable body, every blow she threw was like punching taffy and every time she tried to knock him down he bounced right back up laughing. The fight only ended after several minutes when the pink Djinn got distracted by some chipmunks and forfeited the match to go feed and/or turn them into candy to eat himself? He ran off yelling "I NEED FOOD!" and Trunks was not quite sure what that meant and didn't care to find out.

Goten was not so easily distracted but he was also not used to fighting a target smaller than him, most of his fights had been the other way around, and Pan managed to slip through his reach and get a surprise punch to his solar plexus which gave her just enough time to kick him out of the ring.

After the matches they headed to the restaurant that Bulma had reserved for them. It was a big place and while their group wasn't going to need all the floor space they absolutely needed the big kitchen that came with it. By now very practiced at what holding a party reservation for their group at a restaurant entailed, Bulma had had them arrange the tables into two long banquet lines for when they arrived.

The topic of choice for dinner was everyone taking a chance to drag Goku, it was the talk of the party table as everyone relished a chance to share gripes about him.

Meanwhile over at the other table in the "Saiyan Section" as it had been dubbed years ago, there was a lot less talking and a lot more eating taking place. Indeed the staff at the restaurant found their attention nearly monopolized by the constant need to replace the multitude of dishes on the table as they devoured by only the six people who sat at it, their seats spread out to provide as much space as possible for the dishes upon dishes of food.

Buu had his own table off in the corner where he was eating as vociferously, but exclusively engaged with the dessert menu. It had been discovered by trial and error that he couldn't be allowed to eat at the Saiyan table lest Pan got distracted by all the sweets and ate herself sick on them.

The two table setup had become standard practice over the years, partly due to practical reasons but also because several of the Earthlings complained that they couldn't enjoy their own meals if the were watching the Saiyans pig out.

While some of them had managed to develop tolerance over the years to the site, Bulma and ChiChi being the most obvious ones, some of the others never did. Indeed, Trunks had seen Piccolo sometimes tinge purple if looked over at long enough. No. 18 continued to insist they ruined her appetite, which was a bit of a suspicious claim given her constitution, but an excuse others took when they could get it.

By the time they finished with dinner, and people besides Buu got a chance at the dessert menu, it was still pretty early so it was decided to move the afterparty back at Capsule Corp. Bulma had come prepared and had several vehicles in her capsule case, and back at home base Trunks was soon helping his Grandma work on mixing up a bunch of drinks to bring out to the party guests outside. Grandma Panchy had spent some of her youth as a bartender and Trunks found her vast knowledge about different cocktails endlessly educational, it was fascinating the way the different alcohols and juices combined in the different concoctions. He'd been helping her mix them for years even if he'd only been allowed in the past year to have more than a tiny taste himself.

Finally they wrapped up in the kitchen and Trunks carried out the third tray full of drinks outside to see the party already kicked into full gear, everyone already enjoying themselves with the earlier trays of drinks. He grabbed a very strong one he'd made for himself, knowing he wasn't going to get more than a little buzzed on it thanks to his constitution, but hey it was a party after all.

He looked around and immediately saw ChiChi and Goten on a bench, ChiChi looked to still be in a right tiff about Goku leaving and had decided the best way to deal was to gripe about it to her youngest Son and not let him leave her side for the rest of the night. Trunks could see the tight grip she had on Goten's wrist, and sure theoretically her strength was no match for Goten's and he could escape but that was ignoring ChiChi's iron will and just how intimidating she could be when she was angry. Instead Goten was placating her as he sat next to her and was pretending to listen.

Yeah Trunks could identify a losing strategy when he saw it, he wasn't going to be able to hang out with Goten for the rest of the night. Instead he decided to wander around to see what everyone else was doing.

There was a game of Cheater's Charades going on with the teams of Puar and Yamcha and Oolong and Dende. Between Puar and Yamcha's nigh telepathic ability to read each other's minds, Dende's actual telepathy, Oolong's underhanded tactics, and Puar and Oolong's shapeshifting abilities there was no way to have a normal game so instead the goal was not so much to get your teammate to guess correctly but for the two to work tag-team to try to mislead the rival team while not getting caught.

Roshi's and Marron's heckling interference only adding a further complication that made the game significantly more raucous. Buu was also watching and shouting frequently, though Trunks doubted he understood the mechanics or mindgames at play and was more just requesting things for Puar and Oolong to transform into, it served the same purpose.

Satan was off talking with Ox-King about his horns and asking the practicality of using prosthetic ones himself to add more gravitas to his stage presence. Why he could tell people it was a side-effect of coming into his demonic heritage, or something like that, Trunks didn't keep up with whatever kayfabe story Satan was currently spinning for the public. Videl was trying futilely to convince her father that he didn't need to add yet another element to his gimmick.

He saw his mom and Krillin at one of the tables surrounded by empty glasses as they were continuing one of their favorite drunken conversation topics, ragging on Goku. Gohan was sitting with them as well but he was less contributing to their conversation and more making the occasional noise of agreement as he kept his face buried in the book he'd brought with him.

Vegeta was off in his usual spot during these types of parties, off to the side and by himself with a single drink in his hand, though he was close enough that he was probably enjoying listening to Bulma and Krillin's conversation. Everyone was pretty used to it by now and knew to give him a wide berth, the only people who really approached him at these things without a damn good reason were Goku or Bulma. Sometimes Piccolo joined him too, but as far as Trunks could tell it wasn't because he wanted to actually converse with Vegeta, more he wanted to get in on the best spot at a party to stand around silently brooding while still technically counting it as some sort of social interaction.

But this evening Piccolo's attention was being monopolized by Pan and Bulla. Apparently _someone_ had told the girls that they technically princesses, and the both of them but Bulla especially had gotten fixated on the notion. Trunks could just tell this was going to do wonders for Bulla's already massively inflated ego but that was a problem for another day.

Instead the girls opted to use their newly dubbed princess powers to bully Piccolo into making them dresses with his clothes beam. Trunks was actually impressed with the elaborate dress designs Piccolo was creating, did he spend some of his free time looking at fashion books? Or maybe it was all the help that No 18 was providing, she had taken an interest and wandered over to provide suggestions. Somehow each new dress having more and more frills and sparkles than the one before it, which was a rather impressive feat by the third iteration.

Trunks decided the best place to sit down was at his mother's table where he could zone-out and contemplate some designs while half-listening to the amusing banter.

"You're not gonna get jealous that Goku's off training with someone else, are you?" Krillin called over to Vegeta, and Trunks only just resisted the urge to facepalm. Yep, Krillin sure had been drinking, he must have liked to make bad decisions when he was drunk.

Vegeta glared in response with enough force that Trunks could see Krillin reeling back and maybe rethinking how good an idea it was to ask the question.

"Kakarot wants a chance to train an Earthling child who has potential, nothing more to it than that. I can tell the difference between Kakarot's passing whims and his long-term interests." Vegeta said, "I know I'm in no danger of being replaced as his favored sparring partner."

Bulma thankfully decided to change the subject. "Oh Gohan, I finished upgrading the planetarium to meet the requirements you asked for, including the plans for our special project."

"Gee thanks, Bulma," Gohan said and put down his book as she tossed him a capsule.

Krillin looked intrigued, "Oh, what's Gohan got a planetarium for? And what kind of special project?"

"It's for my university work," Gohan explained, "I've been working in partnership with the Astronomy professor to try and improve the way the classes are taught for the students, it's kind of hard to just stick with big lectures and textbooks, this will provide a more kinesthetic way to teach students about the subject."

"And the special project?" Trunks asked, he was curious about what his mom had been working on that it needed to be kept on the downlow.

Bulma had a gleam in her eyes, "Well you know what they say, the best explanation is a demonstration, Gohan why don't we give everyone a nice little show tonight so they can see it for themselves?"

"I mean, I was kind of hoping Dad would be here to see it." Gohan said, and oh so he was annoyed about the day's events too.

"Oh forget Goku!" Bulma said. "He wants to run off to the other side of the planet he's going to miss things. We can all enjoy the special project without him!"

"I mean, I could..." Gohan hesitated but it was far too late for backing out.

"Hey everyone!" Krillin yelled, "Gohan and Bulma have been working on a secret project, do you guys want to see something cool!"

"Oh boy, those are dangerous words to hear when we're with this group," Yamcha shouted back in response, sounding more than a little tipsy.

"Oh, what are we exploding now?" Marron piped up as she walked over.

"Nothing is exploding," Bulma said, but Trunks heard her add under her breath "And hopefully no one either."

Everyone gathered around while Bulma threw the capsule into a large open space and the usual domed structure appeared moments later.

The inside was simple and practical, a well-cushioned floor with many piles of pillows in which to sprawl and a centre podium with a projector and computer on it. Gohan went to the podium and was setting up the program while everyone kicked off their shoes by the doorway and made themselves comfortable on the floor and piles of pillows, soon everyone was laying down facing the middle of the room.

Considering ChiChi didn't look liable to let go of Goten any time soon Trunks settled for being with his family for the show. They were right by Krillin's family because he and Bulma were still giggling together like kids.

"So, here is how the sky looks above us right here at Capsule Corp," Gohan began and the projector obligingly flickered a glittering imitation of the starry sky onto the ceiling.

"And here is how the sky looks over at Kame House." A chorus of polite oohs and ahhs as the stars shifted slightly above them, but there was still the eagerness as everyone waited for the real show to kick off. Gohan with a star projector was a promise of something interesting.

"Now here is what the sky looks like over at New Namek."

And the stars dramatically changed as they danced to new locations, Trunks wasn't one for looking at the stars much but even he sense that it was a very different sky they were looking up at.

In the center of the room a spherical hologram appeared above Gohan's podium, "This is a map of our Universe, well the Mortal parts anyways, I didn't want to include Other World or any of those places lest my colleagues think I'm a kook." A gentle laugh filtered through the room before Gohan continued, "Now here is where Earth is and here is where New Namek is located."

Two glowing dots appeared on his projection of the universe and they were quite far apart. A moment later and one of the countless stars above them in the sky started to glow much brighter than the others, "And here is where the Earth is in the sky from New Namek's perspective. Now who wants to see what the sky looks like on a different place most of us have been to?"

A new glowing dot appeared on the very edge of the hologram map while the stars moved above, but unlike before when the entire dome was filled with stars they only filled up half the ceiling, the other half was a void. "And here on the edge of our Universe once stood the nameless planet that we all went on a space picnic to a few years back when Beerus and Champa held that tournament for us with Universe 6."

There was something off about only seeing half a sky above them, Trunks felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. Eager to look at something else he glanced around the room and saw that he wasn't the only one unsettled or averting their eyes.

Krillin wasn't looking at the sky at all but the projector in the middle of the room, and spoke loud enough for the whole room to hear, "You know it's funny, I always forget how big the Universe is you know? Like, when we zoom around with Goku's instant transmission or the space cubes, you forget how far apart everything is, or that there is an edge."

There was a smattering of agreement from the room, and Trunks bet he wasn't the only one eager for the sky to change again, seeing the edge of a universe wasn't something one wanted to look at or think about for long. "Hey Gohan do you know where Beerus's planet is?" he called out.

"Yeah, I have the coordinates programed in, just a sec," and moments later a new blinking dot on the map and the sky shifted a moment later.

"Gohan! I have a question!" Bulla interrupted loudly, "If all the rest of the Gods live in Other World, why isn't Uncle Beerus?" The question got a laugh from the room, though it could have just been one of relief at seeing a full horizon of stars above them once again.

"_Uncle Beerus,_ Bulma, why are you letting your daughter call him that," Krillin chided quietly. Bulma blew a raspberry at him before she chose to answer Bulla's question, louder for the rest of the room, "Whis says that Other World is much more condensed and that Beerus finds it stifling. Or I think his exact words were 'bunch of divine busybodies'."

That got another laugh from the room. But not from Gohan, Trunks noted the odd discrepancy, instead Gohan's gaze was fixed somberly on the projector map as a new dot blinkered on, but the sky didn't change with it.

"Should I continue?" Gohan asked carefully in lieu of saying the new location's name. It would have seemed like a non-sequitur if Trunks didn't see that Gohan was looking at the one person the question was actually directed at.

"Do it." Vegeta grunted, and you could hear the sound of the entire room holding it's breath as the stars shifted once again.

"And here is the night sky as it would have appeared on a planet that was destroyed around 43 years ago, known at the time by the designation Planet Vegeta."

Oh, this was very different than all the foreign skies Gohan had shown them prior. For one this was a view of the sky that could no longer be experienced in person, which gave the whole thing a somber air. But for another, this was a more than novel experience for one of the room's inhabitants.

Trunks heard his Dad take in a sharp breath but he didn't say anything, whatever thoughts his father had at seeing the sky of his childhood once again he wasn't sharing.

Bulma was the only one brave enough to break the silence, "Gohan, you want the dial on the right, make sure you only turn it one click."

The room got heavier, and not because of the tension in the air, but literally the entire room suddenly increased in gravity. There was a chorus of surprised noises throughout the room, mainly from people who weren't used to any increased gravity. Trunks meanwhile barley registered it and he bet a number of the people in the room who were in the same position.

"Woah, hey now what's that." Satan's voice echoed through the room.

"Wait is something going on?" Pan asked confused by her human grandfather's reaction. Trunks wondered if she even felt it.

"It's heightened gravity," Gohan explained, "I only have it set for double that of Earth's for the moment."

"And I ask that you keep it there while I'm in the room," Bulma added. "It should be considered more for presentation effect than for training, the room is only capable of maxing out at 10x, anyways."

Wait, didn't Vegeta once mention to Trunks that that was the natural gravity of his birth planet? That meant this had to have been something his mom and Gohan had planned together. Some sort of gift for his dad and Goku?

"Wait so this is what the sky looked like from the planet that Daddy and Uncle Goku are from?" Bulla asked loudly.

"Where are we right now?" Pan piped up. "In the sky."

"Here." Gohan said as he pushed a few buttons and then one of the distant stars off to the right began to glow brighter than any of the others.

Vegeta made a sharp involuntary noise and seconds later his voice boomed throughout the room, "Everyone. Get out now."

He didn't shout it but it still rang out throughout the room with an intensity and the undisputed order and implied threat to his words was something everyone heard.

And moments later everyone was making for the door at once, wanting to leave an enclosed space with an emotionally compromised Vegeta as quickly as they could. "Okay," Gohan said as everyone was scrambling, "that's enough of a show for tonight, how about we get some fresh air."

The room cleared in record time, most everyone not taking the time to trying to locate their own shoes just grabbing a set and getting out the door as quick as possible, and some didn't even do that. Trunks hung back and let others out first, trying to avoid the traffic jam, before he was one of the last to leave.

But he'd only just stepped out of the dome before his mother was grabbing his arm, "Listen, Goku isn't here, so you need to step up and keep your father company right now. You know what, take Bulla and Pan and see if you can get Gohan and Goten to join you guys as well. He can't be in there with just his thoughts, he'll get too tied up in his own head. I don't care how much he blusters, get him talking, keep him distracted."

"Right," Trunks nodded and went back outside to where everyone was trying to figure out whose shoes belonged to who. He spotted Goten talking to his mother and sent a tiny pulse of ki in his direction to get his attention, Goten turned around and when Trunks jerked his head excused himself and ducked over.

"Okay, Mom says we're doing a stupid Saiyan bullshit thing with Dad," Trunks began. "Can you go talk to Gohan about him and Pan staying the night with us in the planetarium, Mom doesn't want Dad to be in there on his own right now."

Goten's eyes widened before nodding a moment later, "Got it, I'll go talk to Gohan, you get the girls, I think I heard Pan say something about wanting to go exploring."

Trunks nodded and noticed the girls, complete in their bedazzled ballgowns, were about to make a run off into the wilderness of the estate, before they could slip off into the trees he'd flash-stepped over and scooped them both up in his arms earning twin surprised "_oofs"_ from them. Amazingly while they both started to squirm they weren't actually putting in the effort they could if they really wanted to escape, probably both intrigued enough to where this was going to allow the manhandling for the moment.

Goten caught up with him as he made his way back to the planetarium, "Okay so, Gohan says he would but he's got a lecture tomorrow and really needs the sleep, but he says it's fine for Pan to spend the night so long as I fly back home tomorrow together with her. Mom was kinda unhappy about it until Videl and Piccolo convinced her that it was a good idea and Vegeta might want need the company right now."

"What's going on, what were you asking my parents and Grandma permission for?" Pan piped up.

Trunks thought quickly, "We're doing a surprise slumber party, only this time we're gonna go do it in the planetarium and keep Dad company."

Bulla was excited, "Oh boy! Slumber party!"

"Oh is this gonna be a Saiyan thing?" Pan asked.

"Probably," Goten laughed and ruffled her hair.

They entered the room, and oh Vegeta had already cranked it up to the 10x setting. He looked up sharply when they opened the door and walked in. The fact that he was surprised by their presence keyed Trunks in to how off he must have been, usually his Dad was always aware of where they were.

"Hey Dad your company is here, per mom's orders, we're stuck with you in here for the night." Trunks called out. "You can talk about whatever you want and we'll listen. Or you can tell us funny stories. Whatever. We're here when you're ready?"

Vegeta only grunted in acknowledgement, which was about what Trunks expected really. He'd leave his dad to his own thoughts for a while, he'd take his time with words. He always did.

He turned back to the girls who were both fascinated with the gravity being ten times higher then what they were used to.

"Oh, wow! I can feel this one!" Bulla said with surprise, though Trunks noted that she seemed only slightly restrained by the amount of additional weight.

"Yeah, a little bit," agreed Pan.

"Pan, look!" Bulla yelled and spun around, and unlike it had outside the room her dress didn't puff out but instead was holding heavily done.

Goten laughed at her amazement, "You know if you wrap your ki around the fabric you can negate the gravity effects."

"Really?" Bulla asked skeptically.

"Yeah," Trunks explained, "it's what we do automatically with our clothes when we fight. Pan, that's why your gi doesn't rip unless you take a blow hard enough that it disrupts your ki. You guys can do it with the pillows too. Give it a try."

This was suddenly enough to gain the full attention of both Pan and Bulla as they started to play with throwing pillows trying to see how far they could get it in the heightened gravity before their control over their ki wavered and the pillows fell with a loud _thump_. Pan was obviously having a much easier time of it, and it quickly devolved into Pan demonstrating to Bulla how to do it in a little game of monkey see, monkey do.

There, that would keep them entertained for a bit, so Trunks and Goten ducked over to the other far side of the room, as far away from his father as they could get. Trunks threw an arm over Goten's shoulder, a common enough sight that it wouldn't raise any suspicions, but also allowed their faces to be inches away from each other as they had a whispered conversation.

"Thanks for going along with this, I know I didn't exactly give you much choice."

"It's fine," Goten rolled his eyes."I mean, of course I'm going to be here, being forced into stupid Saiyan bullshit is basically our life story at this point. I mean when it's not involving other divine people."

Trunks laughed, before dropping his voice down several registers so only Goten could hear, "We can have the post-Budokai celebrations later. I can't wait to collect my winnings, you did lose to Pan."

"I'm not wearing a maid outfit," Goten protested, in the tone of voice that Trunks knew he meant it and no amount of cajoling was going to get him anywhere, so he went for the backup plan.

"I'll settle for just the stockings and garters," Trunks bargained and at Goten's hesitation continued, "Come on Ten, your leg muscles will look _amazing _in them_."_

"Why are you always so interested in getting me in women's underwear?" Goten asked, more than a bit exasperated, because yes this wasn't the first time Trunks had brought it up. Okay, so he _might _have a little bit of a fetish, but he blamed it on his stupid family naming theme.

"It's not getting you in them, it's getting you out of them where all the fun is." Trunks started to rub Goten's bicep in a persuasive yet hopefully not blatantly un-platonic manner.

"_Maybe."_

Translation: 'I'll consider it only so long as you drop it for now, and if I'm feeling particularly generous, or it's your birthday.' Which hell yes. Trunks would absolutely take it as a win.

They were interrupted when a pillow came flying at them, and between the surprise attack and the gravity of the room it was actually enough to knock them both off their feet.

"Ow!" "What the f-" "Boy!"

Trunks's mouth snapped shut before he could finish his response. Right, no cursing in front of the girls, even if they were being little monsters.

"Oh that was a really good throw!" Pan sounded more amazed than anything else, clearly this had been better than their previous attempts. Bulla was grinning like a tiny gremlin. "Daddy did you see! I got them both!"

"Yes, it was a fine throw Sweetheart." Vegeta ruffled a hand through Bulla's hair as he walked across the room, before turning a sterner eye to the teenagers getting to their feet. "And it wouldn't have hit if they had been aware of their surroundings."

Trunks gave a grunt of exasperation, "Okay, why would I be expecting an attack when it's just us standing around."

"A Saiyan should always be on their guard," Vegeta lectured.

"Yeah Trunks," Bulla said, putting her hands on her hips, "How can you win if you're not on your guard?"

"Well I mean, I did beat Goten earlier," Pan said, a devilish little smile on her face.

"Okay that's it," Goten said and charged at Pan who squealed and took off running as he proceeded to chase her before tackling her on the other side of the room, by her shrieks of delight he was probably trying to tickle her.

"She is never going to let you live this down, you know that," Trunks called out to them.

"It's not my fault, it's harder to hit a target that's so tiny!" Goten yelled, before finally managing to pick Pan up in his arms and powerbombing her into the ground hard enough that the thickly padded floor cratered beneath her. She was only momentarily stunned before hopping right back up ready to go a second round when Vegeta's booming voice cut them off.

"Let's cease the combat for now, despite the heightened gravity this is not a training room and I believe Gohan needs it intact for his presentation."

"Right, this room is my Daddy's, he wouldn't want us fighting in here," Pan said, as she stood up and dusted herself off. Goten looked a bit abashed when he noticed the crater, "Do you think Gohan will notice?"

"Just pile a bunch of pillows there and if anyone asks he can spin a story about a meteor simulation going haywire," Trunks said.

He looked back to where his father was standing, still running a hand through Bulla's hair, and was it his imagination or was Vegeta looking oddly content? Well content for him anyways, it still was a pretty stern expression, but it was a big change of pace from how he'd been moments before yelling at everyone to leave.

Trunks had a pretty good grasp on how to read his dad, and there was definitely something fond as he watched Pan and Goten try to arrange the pillows to minimize the crater. Maybe Bulma had been onto something about Vegeta needing company while he stood under the forgotten sky of a lost planet. After all they were all Saiyan, even if they were Earthling hybrids.

"Daddy, what were you thinking about when you were looking up at the sky when we came in?" Bulla asked and tugged at his pant leg.

"Star stories," Vegeta muttered.

"Stories?" Pan asked, enthused at the possibility of one of her many favorite things, "Uncle Vegeta, are you gonna tell us stories, now?"

"Yeah, Daddy, tell us stories!"

Well fuck, Mom had told him to get get his dad talking and the girls were doing a better job at it then Trunks could have ever done on his own.

"Yeah Dad," Trunks added his support, "Mom's orders to us were that we were to spend the night in here with you, the least you could do is offer us some entertainment."

At Vegeta's hesitation Goten chimed in from across the room, "Yeah, why don't we all sit in a circle, might make it easier? We can wait till your ready to talk."

They did so, complete Bulla had practically flung herself into her father's lap demanding that he braid her hair. Trunks knew it bothered his mom how Bulla always claimed that Vegeta was "the bestest" at braiding her and how much she resisted it when her mother tried to do it. Bulma had only stopped sulking about the subject when Vegeta had pointed out to her that while Bulla's hair matched the color of her mother's, her hair follicles were still attached to a Saiyan and required different tension and pressure in the technique of it that came naturally to him. Bulma had written it off as a lost cause as she grumbled loudly about "stupid monkey grooming".

Of course that presented a new problem when moments later Pan was clearly getting jealous of the attention. "Trunks, you to do Pan's hair," Bulla demanded. "By order of your princess."

Vegeta let out a snort but didn't say anything instead watching Trunks react with some amusement. Trunks sighed, he just knew that he was going to be hearing that phrase a lot. Goten's only response was to laugh at his suffering, "Hear that Trunks, you've been given a royal order."

"Uh-huh, Marron told me that if I say that then people have to listen to me."

"Marron should keep her mouth shut," Trunks snapped. "You are spoiled enough as it is Bulla, you don't need to go around ordering people."

"The real question is who does she get that attitude from, her mom, her dad, or _you_," Goten said, shoving an arm into Trunks's side.

Trunks sighed, "Yeah okay, come here Pancakes, I'll do your hair."

Pan happily moved over and into his lap, and Goten was still laughing as he scooted closer to Trunks.

If Vegeta had any thoughts about it he didn't say anything, but he was pretty sure there was another flash of emotion in his eyes, maybe amusement?

He began to run his hands through Pan's hair, and yeah he kind of got what Dad was talking about, it took him a couple of tries but he found a rhythm in how much firm pressure to exert. Pan's hair was too short to do any real braids, so they were more doing small twists of her short locks. "I don't have any of those rubber bands," Trunks says in frustration.

"Oh, I have an idea," Goten said, "it's something I've been working on, gimmie a minute." He was concentrating and he made a small ring of ki before him, it got smaller and came over and held the tiny braid in place like a hair band.

Trunks was impressed, "Can you do multiple ones? How long do they last?" Because those ki bands were giving Trunks ideas.

"I mean as long as I'm concentrating yeah, I can probably do multiples. Plus it's not like they need to be that strong if they're just holding hair, I've been working on single ones that can hold a lot more strength. Uh, I was thinking they might have other uses."

Oh so Goten had already been thinking of the perversion potential of these too, _interesting- _No. Nope. cool it Trunks, mind out of the gutter, his father and sister were less then a couple feet away, he had a five year-old Pan in his lap, and everyone in here had an enhanced sense of smell. Begone impure thoughts, banish thy demons to Other World, now was so not the time.

But he was absolutely going to thoroughly contemplate the matter when he got a moment of alone time, or better yet he and Goten could-

"So Dad, about those stories," Trunks was pretty sure no one else noticed how his voice cracked as he rushed to get the words out and change the subject as quickly as possible. "You going to share them with the rest of us? Something about the stars?"

"Alright," Vegeta began, "the Stars tell the story of the Universe, a record of events and entities, and sometimes the mortals who are strong enough to shape it. The only exception is of Beerus, as a Destroyer God he doesn't destroy planets he erases them, and their lights permanently. He ends stories and doesn't even leave a record behind. That's why he is to be most feared and respected."

"Well we're doing a great job at that, aren't we Dad?" Trunks jeered as Bulla grabbed for her necklace of a small gold effigy of the Seventh Universe's God of Destruction. It had been a gift from the cat god himself earlier this year, Trunks remembered how Beerus had tried to play it off like it meant nothing, that it was just a complete coincidence that their visit happened to coincide with Bulla's birthday. But of course it would have been rude to leave a birthday girl without a gift and he'd had Whis create it on the spot. Whis had obliged, and laughed at Beerus's attempt to play it off, instead musing about how oddly enchanting the Saiyan children were.

To anyone else in the Seventh Universe, having the God of Destruction ensnared on a string would have been an accomplishment enough, but to Bulla, Beerus was just another one of the many strings she had wrapped around her tiny fingers. Just one part of the game of cat's cradle she played with Pan.

Vegeta didn't say anything immediately, but his fingers continued to work in silence for several moments, till he finally responded, "I'm sharing the stories as they were once told to me, I recognize that certain elements don't quite match our lived experience. I can't say whether this means that these old stories are complete fabrications or just distortions of fact, or perhaps it doesn't matter if they were truths twisted by time or even never true at all, because they're all obsolete to us presently. I have already personally far exceeded the abilities of Super Saiyans and Super Saiyan Gods than even the legends spoke of. Regardless," and he finally looked up and met Trunks's gaze straight on and Trunks felt the menace in his gaze_,_ "_you_ are the one who asked for these stories, and so you _will _hear and respect them as if they were true. Do I make myself clear, Boy?"

"Crystal," Trunks gulped. Okay got it, no more snark allowed. Trunks needed to be on his best behavior right now. Goten voiced his agreement as well even though they all knew it wasn't him that Vegeta was reproaching.

But then his dad started talking again, "My father used to show me the stars and talk about how Saiyan history was written amongst them, of the battles fought and planets lost to them and how the lights captured the changes. It was an old story that you could tell where a Saiyan died, by seeing the resulting star that was formed, the brightest stars being the supernovas that resulted when two Saiyans met their final end together."

"That's that kismesis stuff right?" Goten asked, perking up. "Can you talk a bit about that? I mean the older stories and stuff, I don't need to hear about my Dad. It's just, you're the only person who I can ask, you know?" And oh, Trunks hadn't really thought about that stuff, the other half of the weird relationship their dads had. It wasn't just that that they had some sort of sexual relationship, which Trunks tried very hard to never think about, but also the strange mutual suicide pact part of it. It was almost enough to distract him from the first time he'd ever heard his father mention his own father.

"Hmm." Was all Vegeta said for a moment, but given his gaze was on the girls Trunks could tell he was probably working on what to say that would be appropriate for them to hear.

"Hmm." Vegeta didn't say anything more for several minutes but neither Goten nor anyone else pressed him for an immediate response, Trunks had a pretty good idea that the hesitation was to try and work out a response that would be appropriate for the girls to hear. He remembered more than a few times of his mother lecturing Vegeta to make sure any talk of kismesis in front of Bulla was spared the "gruesome" details.

Bulla had accepted readily enough the explanation that what Vegeta and Goku shared was a "special Saiyan relationship" with all the thoughtless childhood innocence that came with her age. Not even bothering to question it, much like how she didn't question why her father only ever called Goku by a different name than everyone else, it's just how things were. But how long that was going to last as Bulla grew up was a different question.

Finally Vegeta began to speak again, "It was said that the reason Saiyans had so much ki was because as a species we had stardust in our blood."

"I don't get it," Pan interrupted, "Daddy said everything is made out of space dust, what's the difference between that and stardust."

"Gohan isn't wrong, everyone is made out of cosmic particles, spacedust isn't an inaccurate term, but Saiyans are different and have more than that. What makes Saiyans unique was their innate high levels of ki energy and the ability to push the limits of their strength after a difficult battle. It's called a zenkai boost and ensures that every time a Saiyan got close to death but still managed to survive they would be much stronger than they were before. That's where the saying about stardust originates from.

"And much like how when any mortal dies their bodies return to the elements, the same is true for ki. That is why it's so important for Saiyans to die in a battle while still in their prime, it's to release their ki back amongst the stars they were born from. If you die old and feeble all that ki goes to waste and upsets the natural balance.

At least that's how it was supposed to work in theory, but now we see all too well how the gods like to meddle in mortal affairs and allow those they favor to retain their bodies and ki even after they passed on. But it doesn't diminish the importance of the final battle. The death of a Saiyan is something that should not be taken lightly as the event records their prowess, their power and deeds and might, in a place where previously there was only void. One should only meet Death when facing a worthy opponent and there isn't a better match than one's kismesis."

"But haven't you and Dad already died several times by now?" Goten asked.

"Yes, but those weren't permanent deaths. Now we have the Dragon Balls and other divine magic to tip the scales and allow us to return from death multiple times but that won't be true indefinitely. One day there will come a time to die, a time where there is no point to trying to undo it as the only thing to look forward to is old age and a miserable end. Kakarot may have died before to other opponents, but he understands that his final death isn't allowed to be at any hand but mine."

"Wait, you and Uncle Goku gonna die?" Bulla asked, her voice and lower lip trembling, "for reals? Not just for a while?"

"Everyone dies eventually Bulla, it is the fate of mortal beings. Death is not to be feared but to met face to face. If today is not the day you choose to die, then you must fight to ensure that it isn't. That is the way of warriors. Only the weak and the foolish desire immortality."

Goten looked confused, "You know Piccolo told me that when you first wanted the Dragon Balls you wanted to wish for-"

"Like I said," Vegeta cut him off tersely. "Weak and foolish."

"Ah." Goten focused on Pan's hair and tried to fight a smile, but it was a futile battle. Vegeta ignored him.

"But I don't want you to die Daddy," Bulla said, her patented 'I always get what I want' voice in full effect.

"It won't be for many years, stop your pouting."

At her refusal Trunks tried to offer his own reassurance, "Besides, like Dad said, we've been dead before, it's not that bad. It just means going to Other World, and it's a pretty cool place, lots of old dead people to talk to and places to go.."

"Yeah Dad said they even have fighting tournaments in Other World," Goten added. "There was one where Dad was the secret ringer for King Kai."

"Oh, oh, King Kai?" Pan interrupted. "I know him! Grandpa took me to visit him once, he's short and blue!"

"What kind of blue?" Bulla had a ranking system of the best shades of blue, unsurprisingly her top spot were occupied by "blue like mommy's and my hair" and "blue like Daddy's hair turns".

"Blue like Whis," Pan answered, very familiar with said ranking system.

"Hmm, well what's he even king of?"

"Uh-uh, stuff," Pan shrugged. "But only the north stuff."

"That doesn't sound that impressive. Besides, I live in West City, so he's not the king of me!" Before Trunks could correct his sister that that wasn't how it worked Pan was already continuing.

"Well he also has got his own tiny planet with a car, and he has a pet monkey named Bubbles!"

"Well all right, if he has a monkey I guess he's okay," Bulla conceded.

"If I could continue," Vegeta interrupted, before the girls got off on another one of their tangent conversations which could last for hours.

"The birth planet of the Saiyans was called Planet Sadala, it was destroyed many centuries ago in a great battle between two kismesis, it split the planet in two and caused havoc on the rest of the solar system in which it was located, necessitating relocation. The event was called the Fork of Sadala and it was a worthy end to the planet and was spoken of with respect on the new planet the Saiyans moved to, named after the conquering King and his family line, that of Vegeta."

"What happened to the new planet, the one named after you?" Pan asked, "My Daddy said it has to do with Frieza or something?"

"After moving to Planet Vegeta the Saiyans were recruited by the space empire under King Cold, in exchange for allowing them to claim their new planet. It was seen as a mutually beneficial relationship for a time, with the Saiyans make up in making up in both numbers and strength more than half of the Cold Force, they were part and parcel of it. But that changed when Cold's son Frieza took over control of the empire. He ordered every Saiyan to return to the planet before he destroyed it by his own hand, and with it nearly every Saiyan alive. Afterwards he would perpetuate a falsehood that a meteor had done the job, in order to prevent others from hearing the full truth of his betrayal."

Vegeta acknowledged Pan's raised hand and she asked her question. "Wait, if Frieza wanted all the Saiyans to be on the planet, why were you and my grandpa let go free?"

"We were not meant to have survived. My squad only happened to survive because I ignored the order to return. As for Kakarot?" He sighed and paused for a moment before continuing, "You must understand my memories are somewhat hazy, I was only about 8 years of age by the way Earthlings count, but as I recall the story was that a rogue technician took him from his nursing capsule and put him immediately in a travel pod and sent him to a planet on the edge of the North Galaxy. Planet 4032-877, Earth."

"Why did you make such a fuss earlier during my Daddy's show?" Pan asked.

Yes, thank you, Trunks thought. It was much better that the girls were asking these questions, than him or Goten, it was much harder to get angry at their childish questions.

Vegeta grimaced at the reminder of him losing that control, "I never gave much thought to the course that pod would have charted. I was taken aback to see it as someone on planet would have seen it."

"What was so shocking about it?" Goten asked carefully when it seemed the girls weren't going to.

"I hadn't realized that the path that Kakarot's pod traveled to reach Earth would take him directly along the Fork of Sadala." Vegeta said quietly, like he was admitting something important.

Oh. That was a bunch of stuff Trunks knew he was not going to be able to get his Dad to talk about no matter how much he pressed. It was all to close to the notion of destiny. Trunks had once asked his father about his thoughts on the subject, years back when he was trying to figure out something about how some things just seemed to click together perfectly, made sure to neglect to mention who he was thinking about in particular when he'd asked the question.

But back then Vegeta had been dismissive of the very idea, "A delusion for people who want to believe themselves destined for greatness but don't have the fortitude or determination to accomplish it themselves. Destiny gets no credit for the person I am, _I_ was the one who fought and chose to be where I am now."

And Trunks could see his point, people clinging in desperation to a belief they were destined for more often did ignore what it took to actually get to that end and he very much doubted his Dad was meant by someone to make some of the choices he had. But he also thought maybe his Dad might be a little biased from his own experiences. Maybe Destiny wasn't written in stone or in the stars but more like an opportunity offered that you had to try to work to seize?

Bulla interrupted Trunks's own thoughts with her next question, "Do you miss them? Everyone who died when Frieza blew up the planet?"

"Miss is not the right word, more… contemplate." After a minute of silence where Trunks could see him trying to figure out how to elaborate, he finally offered, "I had a younger brother who was still in the nursery when he died, along with the rest of the planet."

"You had a brother?" Bulla's eyes were wide and yeah if Trunks was a bit younger he'd be as openly surprised as she was. Instead he opted to raise an eyebrow in Goten's direction.

"Yes, but he wasn't marked to be a soldier. We could read the ki of our children and designate their role in society before they were ready to even walk. He hadn't the right readings or nature to be a warrior. I always wrote him off, but as of late I wonder what would he have been like if he had managed to survive."

Vegeta seemed to be weighing his words and Trunks got the distinct impression that he was being deliberately selective when he said, "Siblings amongst Saiyans were seen a bit differently than they are here on Earth, you weren't obligated to accept your relation just because you shared a biological connection. There was more to it than that. It was often said that the ones you fought alongside were considered closer in blood than ones who shared your parentage."

Before Trunk could inquire as to what exactly he meant by that Bulla had already barreled on with her own questions, "Do you wish you had a brother now? Do you wish he had survived?"

Vegeta sighed, "No. I would have been a poor brother for him. I was young and foolish, and wouldn't have seen any value in a Saiyan who didn't want to fight. And it's a far better fate that he didn't have to face Frieza as I did."

No one said anything for a few minutes after that, while the men all lost in thought the girls were beginning to rapidly tire out, the days events and their usual bedtimes catching up to them.

But Trunks could see his father was starting to brood more and Trunks needed to break him out of it fast. "What were you thinking about now, Mom said not to let you get lost in your head."

"What my father would think of the man I've become."

Oh wow, straight for the heavy shit, and Trunks felt a twinge in his spine, as he worried about that. How exactly could he continue a conversation on such a touchy topic? His dad had never, not once, even mentioned his own father to Trunks before now and now he was hearing about him twice in one night?

Trunks wanted to ask some questions but he also didn't want to be the one to ask it, so instead he elbowed Goten and gave him a look trying to communicate without words, and of course because Goten was perfect and _got_ Trunks and how his brain worked, Goten was able to pick up on the unspoken message.

"Do you ever wish that you stayed there, like if Frieza never blew it up or whatever, do you wish you got to be the King of all Saiyans. If it makes it easier, we could say for argument that my Dad still was sent to Earth and that you guys would have met somehow."

"Never."

Now that was a surprise for Trunks to hear, and he could tell Goten wasn't expecting that response either, but Vegeta continued unprompted on his own, not looking up from his braiding of Bulla's hair, "The life I could have had there has nothing in comparison to what I have here. I've known that for a while, but I never put the knowledge in the right context."

"And what was that Daddy?" Bulla asked, sleepily.

"I can't imagine wanting to live a life without the both of you and your mother in it. As an old saying went, Planet Vegeta was where Kakarot and I sprouted but Earth is where we put down roots. I'm more proud of every Saiyan in this room, and on this planet, than I am for the entirety of the Saiyan history that has come before us. Even if some of them are slackers." he quickly tagged on with a sharp look at the boys, lest they think he was being too complimentary.

Whoa.

That was a sentiment loaded with meaning, and Trunks didn't even know where to begin to unpack the amount of baggage in it. He knew better than anyone how his father only admitted to caring for anyone with extreme reluctance. Years of Mom complaining about having to pull words of affection from him was like pulling teeth and even she seemed to get it better than anyone.

Pan was just barely awake as she murmured, "We love you too Uncle Vegeta," before drifting off into actual sleep.

Goten spoke up after a moment, "Hey now that they're asleep, Vegeta if you don't mind I have a question about something you said earlier, that it wasn't just you that ignored Frieza's orders to return to the planet, but there were others?"

Vegeta sighed, "Yes, I was with my - I suppose I could call them companions - at the time. Typical Saiyan squads averaged to be around five in number and that was how it was for us. It was only meant to be a temporary assignment for a few years but obviously became a permanent post after the planet's destruction."

"What happened to them?" Goten prodded, "Because growing up Gohan always told me it was just you and Dad, well I guess also that Broly guy off in space too but we didn't know about him yet."

"Two of them were eliminated shortly thereafter by Frieza to intimidate and force my compliance to his rule. I didn't make an effort to remember their names and thus have long forgotten them. He left the remaining two live so long as we were all subservient to him. They were General Nappa and Raditz."

The names sounded only vaguely familiar, Trunks might have heard them once or twice from Gohan or Piccolo but they weren't a common topic. More often they were simply called, "Vegeta's old friends" if anything. Everyone was very tight lipped about what exactly had happened during the first time his father had come to Earth, even Gohan had never gone into specifics favoring euphemisms and vagueness.

"What were they like, your friends?" Goten asked.

"I wouldn't have called us friends." When Vegeta saw that was not going to be a sufficient answer he continued, "Nappa was the one responsible for the squad when I was younger, as he'd been an old loyal acquaintance of my father and trusted to have my best interests in mind. He'd been the one to request that Raditz be assigned, not because of his strength but because of his age. Nappa had thought it would be better for my development if I had a year-mate." Vegeta rolled his eyes at this, showing he did not agree with the assessment.

"So Raditz was your friend?" Trunks pressed, if Raditz had been about his Dad's age that meant they had probably trained a lot together.

"It would certainly not be recognized as such by Earthling definition, but fine, I suppose you could call him that," Vegeta rolled his eyes. "We were both a bunch of brats and his cockiness aggravated me because he didn't have the strength to back it up. I'm sure he was similarly annoyed by me, though for different reasons."

Vegeta was quiet again, weighing his words before he finally added, "He was also your uncle, Goten.

"Wait what!" Goten yelped and sat back surprise, and it was a good thing Pan wasn't in his lap or she would have been jerked awake.

"Quiet, don't wake the girls," Vegeta admonished sharply, and Goten clamped his hands over his own mouth till he was able to respond in a quieter voice, "What do you mean he was my uncle?"

"He was Kakarot's elder brother, though given the age gap I don't think they ever met before Raditz came to Earth all those years later. Remember what I said about a biological connection not necessitating closeness. Raditz and Kakarot are a perfect example of how different two Saiyans could be. They'd only just barely be considered siblings."

"Still," grouched Goten, "why is this the first time I'm hearing about this?"

"It wasn't anything that concerned you, and that's all that needs to be said on the matter," Vegeta said, "but if you have other questions about my travels I suppose I could answer them."

Vegeta spent the rest of the night talking with him and Goten while the girls slept, telling them stories about other planets and aliens. Trunks couldn't help but notice that the few of them from the time before he had first visited Earth were sparse of details.

It wasn't exactly a secret that his father had probably done things he didn't look back on favorably but the complete absence of any stories was strange. He knew that his Dad hadn't come to Earth the first time with good intentions, and between him and another guy had even killed some of the Dragon Gang while searching for the Dragon Balls. But that all got fixed later didn't it? And hadn't his dad been impressed with Goku and the rest of the Earthlings when they managed to defeat him?

There was a lot that Vegeta wasn't telling them, and not just because Bulla and Pan were in the room, even asleep as they were. And Trunks was naturally curious as to what exactly was being censored from his knowing. He barely mentioned Frieza and he'd been working for him, and he hadn't said much more about his "companions" at all, did he miss them? He didn't hear much fondness when he spoke about them, but what about the one who had been his Dad's age, Raditz?

Trunks had many questions about his dad but he knew he wasn't going to get any answers from him. Well in that case, Trunks finally knew what he wanted to do with his summer vacation.

He was going on a Dragon Ball hunt.


	4. I'm Curving Like the Ocean Towards You

**(Goten)**

Goten had been planning a summer of reading comics, spending time doing drawing streams with Inka, and just enjoying the freedom from schoolwork. Maybe slacking on the training with Trunks a bit, as much as they could get away without igniting the ire of their fathers. (Goten wondered if Trunks would be willing to switch up the schedule to have just one sparring session and the other two be more dancing stuff? Trunks seemed to be pretty into the more hip hop style?) All until they met up with the gang for WaterWorld in a few weeks time.

Of course then Goku had to go and decide that he was going to go spend years, _years_, training some random kid on the other side of the planet. Hearing this made Goten want to do several things, chief amongst them yell loudly in an uninhabited canyon for a few hours.

The most infuriating part was Goten didn't know why he was so surprised, it was exactly like Goku to do something like this. Goten knew that his father loved him and the rest of his family, knew it with a certainty deep in his bones. But Goten also knew he had a shitty way of showing that love. Goku needed to be nagged by ChiChi constantly to remember to do his chores, even the ones he liked doing! It was as if something wasn't directly in front of him, he was liable to forget about it and do whatever he wanted to instead. Out of sight, out of mind.

And he knew it wasn't fair to think it, but sometimes Goku's forgetfulness would make Goten wonder if he even cared about anything that wasn't his primary motivation for absolutely everything, fighting. Not like he spent the first seven years of Goten's life fighting against other dead guys in the afterlife. Oh yeah, that wound was still very much there and while mostly healed over by time and getting to know just who his father was as a person, the scar tissue was still pretty raw.

The only thing that had kept him from being jealous of Trunks for having his dad around while they were growing up was the front row seat to how bad Vegeta had been at it. Sure he had been physically present but emotionally he might have well been a distant star.

Goten didn't understand why he and Trunks had to have such rotten luck when it came to fathers. Well that wasn't true, Goten knew one of the big reasons why their luck was so shit. Because their dads weren't human and apparently parenting didn't come naturally. It was something they had to learn.

If Goten ever had any kids, which was a pretty big if considering at this point it would probably necessitate adopting, he promised himself he would be a father more like Gohan or Piccolo. The people he'd looked up to when he'd been a boy when his dad had existed as an ever-present ghost instead of a flesh-and-blood person.

That wasn't to say that things hadn't changed over the years. If anything Goten should probably be more jealous of Pan and Bulla, they were the ones who got the full benefits of everyone having learned how to parent, but it wasn't their fault they had been born on the right side of the learning curve.

That night in the planetarium with Vegeta had been the first time he'd ever really heard much about Saiyans besides what he'd picked up over the years from the context of it being what everyone blamed for their fathers' obsession with fighting. Or Goten and Trunks's own incredible strength. He sometimes forgot just how different being a Saiyan really was. The night had given Goten a lot to think about.

Goten had flown home with Pan the next morning and was greeted by an annoyed Piccolo, who was unhappy about his weekly day with Pan being cut into, and quickly absconded with her off to wherever he had planned to take her for the day while Videl and Gohan were busy. Yeah, Pan was spoiled for attention.

Goten started on his chores and finished them at top speed so he could just collapse on his bed and try to mull over what he wanted to do next. He was tired from the night of no sleep, and was certainly going to be feeling it soon, but he also couldn't ignore that rush in him that wanted to _do_ something. More than that, his mind was a mess of thoughts running roughshod over each other. He wanted to take in everything that happened yesterday, needed to really _think_ about it, and there was only one way he was going to really do that.

He went for his drawing supplies, he didn't feel like messing with his drawing tablet, with it's too precise ability to refine his drawings with that precious undo button. No he wanted something that felt more holistic, so he grabbed for his charcoal supplies and threw himself on his bed. The second his pencil touched the paper it was already sketching away and it took a little before his brain caught up with what he was drawing. It was a picture of Vegeta, or a version of him that Goten had never thought about existing before the past 24 hours.

A young Vegeta in silhouette looking up at the stars on a planet, one that Goten had no idea what it actually looked liked and let his brain fill in the gaps, but that wasn't the important part of the drawing, it was the stars. He'd tried to memorize how they'd looked last night and did his best to recreate them now. And as he did it he let his mind wander, digesting all of the stories Vegeta had shared and trying to reconcile the boy in his drawing with the man he knew.

It wasn't until he looked over at his clock later that he'd realized he'd spent hours working on the first sketch then multiple others till he got something he was actually happy with, the shadows and silhouettes capturing the feeling of contemplation he wanted, the stars finally looking as they should. Fuck, he teased Trunks sometimes about his workshop frenzies but Goten could get into ones just as bad if circumstances permitted it. He yawned and realized just how exhausted he was and after setting aside his drawing supplies collapsed into some much needed rest.

When he woke up it was to the smell of his mom cooking dinner and his stomach reminding him he'd skipped lunch. After dinner he checked his laptop for the first time in two days and saw a litany of messages from his friends, but over 47 from Trunks, oh boy. He clicked Trunks's first and saw an entirely one-sided conversation Trunks had been having since noon, where he announced that they were leaving in two days for a "camping adventure" for the weeks until their trip to WaterWorld. The reason for the trip? A Dragon Ball hunt.

He kept using the words camping as if that word alone would entice Goten into the plan, which just made Goten roll his eyes. He knew that Trunks's definition of "camping" was very different from his own.

See, Goten actually liked the wilderness. He liked pitching a tent in a forest and being days away from electricity and the indoors. He'd done a kiddie version of it with Gohan when they were younger and in the surrounding areas of Mount Paozu, but he'd gone out on some pretty extreme camping adventures with both him and Goku in the past couple of years. Where they flew to a remote and wild location with only a backpack of essentials on them. Where they actually had to go hunting for their food, and it took some pretty big animals to be able to feed them.

But Trunks? He was a spoiled boy from one of the biggest metropolises on Earth, who wouldn't dream of leaving without a full capsule case with food and necessities like some mechanical project to tinker on, not to mention a selection of vehicles and a capsule house, all with AC and deluxe sound system. Which, yeah was nice and all but it was hardly what Goten would consider camping. God he'd probably insist on bringing his "girlfriend" along with them, because gods forbid he went a day or two without feeling up the damn bike.

If Goten didn't know Trunks as well as he did, he might feel cause to be jealous of the hoverbike, but it was because he knew Trunks he knew nothing was meant by it, beyond some weird mechanic's obsession and borderline fetish.

Goten loved Trunks, he really did, but he also kind of hated him. Hated his stupid arrogance, hated how he always pushed to get his way, hated that he never smiled but instead smirked. And he hated how Trunks knew exactly what to say and what buttons to press to get Goten excited for this trip. Even when Goten knew exactly just what the compromised way the word "camping" was being used, he was still excited by the idea. He'd start packing in the morning.

Goten arrived at noon at Capsule Corp with a packed backpack two days later, not quite knowing what to expect with the road trip send off, but it sure wasn't Trunks in full tilt sulking diva mode while arguing with Bulma in the main living room. Marron's presence was also a surprise, her attention fixed to her phone looking like she'd rather be anywhere that didn't involve listening to this fight.

But the tide of battle turned with Goten's arrival and he soon found himself with the full attention of both mother and son as they sought to get him on their side. Trunks was, of course, the first to strike, "Ten, you won't believe what my mom is making us do."

Bulma had her hands on her hips,"Oh stop it Trunks, if you want to borrow the Dragon Radar you have to agree to my terms, and that means taking Marron with you on your little expedition." Before turning to Goten and explaining in a calmer voice, "Krillin already arranged with me to watch Marron while he and No 18 are away and she wants to go along on the trip with you boys."

Goten glanced over to Marron who was rolling her eyes but took the prompting, "My parents are going on a couple's cruise together and I think a Dragon Ball hunt sounds more fun than being bored in West City and babysitting Bulla. Besides if we're already summoning Shenron, I got a wish I'd like granted. There's three wishes and three of us so it works out."

"But she's just a kid!" Trunks groaned. "And she can't fly!"

Bulma was not having it, "Trunks you are too old to be throwing a childish hissy fit."

"Mom, please. I'm an adult, if anything it's an adult hissy fit."

"Besides, I _can_ fly," Marron protested. "I mean, nowhere near as fast as you Saiyans, sure, but still. Besides, I thought this was a road trip where you were planning on taking a car and stuff."

Goten suddenly realized that the final decision was going to come down to his choice. Bulma wouldn't be able to argue against the combined agreement of both of them, but at the same time if he insisted Trunks would inevitably relent. He could see where Trunks was coming from, Marron was still only 13 and the vibe of the trip would definitely be different if she was there. But Goten also had a pretty good suspicion that the real reason Trunks was protesting so much was that he saw plans of a particularly unwholesome variety were getting foiled. Then again being stuck with only Trunks for company for several weeks sounded like it would get tiring quickly and the more people on the trip the merrier, right? "I say Marron can come with us."

"Ten!" Trunks yelped as if he'd been struck in the back in an ultimate betrayal.

"Hah! Hear that Trunks, you were overruled," Marron jabbed while Bulma flashed the victory sign at her son. Goten signed at their antagonizing, though at the same time the resulting pout from Trunks was pretty amusing.

"Ugh, I don't even have any hovercars that seat more than two! What am I supposed to do with a whole trip?" Trunks whined loudly.

Bulma rolled her eyes, "You can borrow some of my capsules, I'm sure you can find something sporty enough for your tastes. Here let me see what you're taking and if you need any anything in addition."

Oh, that was a decent bribe and might have been what Trunks had been aiming for as he perked up at that. Goten had spent years on the receiving end of long diatribes from Trunks about how overprotective Bulma was about her vehicles, rants that seemed rather prophetic later on when Trunks was even more protective of his prized "Baby" and "Side Chick".

They walked over to the table where amongst Bulma's piles of paperwork and half-finished parts she had her own oversized capsule case, and the two started to enthusiastically consult on the merits of the two dozen or so capsules each contained within.

Marron shot Goten a sidelong look and she knew exactly what she was thinking, it was a frankly ridiculous amount of capsules for any one individual to have in their possession, and Goten knew that this was far from the only case either of them owned. Being the family that invented and produced them might have been an explanation but it wasn't exactly an excuse for how inundated with the devices as they were.

"Trunks wants the trip to be about a month, you got enough stuff packed?" Goten asked Marron.

"Yeah, I have a suitcase with clothes and a backpack with everything else, and I'm sure we'll find places where we can stop and do laundry on the trip." Marron gave another look at the Briefs, "That's assuming Trunks doesn't bring along a laundromat in his case."

Goten laughed, "Yeah, I packed up just a bag of essentials but knowing Trunks, I doubt we'll be packing light."

They talked some more for a bit, mostly about school and what subjects Marron was going to be starting when she started her last year of middle school after the summer, before Trunks walked over with a victorious grin and clutching one bright pink capsule in particular.

"What your mom give you?" Marron asked.

"Come outside and see for yourself."

It turned out to be a sporty convertible hovercar of the same near reddish pink as the capsule, Goten knew enough about cars to tell was probably some heavily modified luxury model, though the finer details were lost on him.

"Her name is Cerise, and it isn't being released on the open market for another two years, of course it won't be nearly as awesome as this one, Mom got her hands on a prototype and has been letting me help with the modifications."

"Neat," Marron said, "does it have enough space in the storage for my bags? Doesn't look like it"

"Who needs space when we have capsules," Trunks tossed an empty capsule to Marron, he was pulling out a map from his own backpack so he missed Marron's mocking as she silently mouthed his words. Goten stifled a laugh and instead walked over to where the map was spread out over the car's hood while Trunks had started to fiddle with the radar.

"We know what the road map of this trip is gonna look like yet?"

"Nope. Mom wouldn't give me the radar till today, I need to figure out where all the balls are first."

Goten looked down at the map, "Well we at least know we're going to want to be finishing up near Yahhoi at the start of July, we're meeting some friends for a long stay at WaterWorld that's in that area. "

"Huh, but that's nearly a whole month from now," Marron said then waved off the glare Trunks shot her before he went back to messing with the radar and started to mark the paper. "Hey, I'm not criticizing, I'm just curious, surely we could gather them in half that time. What's with the slow pace?"

Trunks rolled his eyes, "Sure we could do it a lot faster if we wanted to, hell if Goten and I flew at top speed we could probably gather them in a day or two. But that's not the point! I don't want to spend all day in the road, I want to take time to explore the places we're going to visit, taking it slow and having fun is the point."

Goten was impressed, "Huh, you put a lot of thought into this."

"Of course, I want this to be the most awesome trip possible, even with the tagalong."

Marron stuck her tongue out at him but Trunks didn't see it as his attention was back to the map. Soon all three of them were gathered around the finished map and examining the locations of the seven bright orange dots.

"Oh hey there's one all the way out west near Korin's place," Marron said. "That's not that far from Yahhoi at all, that can be the last one."

"So we'll start heading northeast and get those balls first before we move south and westward to finish up at Yahhoi," Trunks announced. Goten was happy to have an actual plan for the trip in place, even if they weren't planning on following the itinerary exactly and more playing it by ear.

After a bit more running around to make sure they had everything they wanted to take with them, they set off soon after. Marron had to share the backseat with a bag filled with snacks and declared herself "snack dealer" whose duties included passing out snacks and refusing to do so unless she was called by her proper title.

Most of the first few hours of driving were taken up by a mildly contentious, but mostly friendly, debate about music tastes, and trying to work out a schedule over who got to control the stereo that everyone could agree with. Goten and Trunks's taste in music diverged the most, Trunks preferring stuff with "interesting" sounds, techno rhythms, and classic rock while Goten liked stuff folky with arty lyrics and more milder tempos. Marron's taste seemed to be anything with enough of a pop beat behind it, and her music was voted the least objectionable.

Since they only set out in the afternoon they only got a few hours of driving in before sunset, but they had made some decent progress before they decided to set up camp in an uninhabited region about 30 km north of Parsley City. Goten wanted a chance to stretch his legs and get some energy out and Marron had gotten tired of Trunks's cryptic answers to her asking about what accommodations he had brought.

His artful dodging of the question was answered when he threw a capsule and a domed capsule house appeared that large enough to be considered a regular house for a normal person. "Some camp." Marron said dryly. "I guess I should have realized we were glamping."

The inside was an open living room and kitchen setup which took up half of the dome, in the middle of the room was a small hallway that lead directly across to the bathroom, and presumably any bedrooms.

Goten went to check out the kitchen first, noting that the fridge and freezer where both well stocked. "Grandma and I did a big grocery run yesterday," Trunks said as he started unpacking his luggage from one of the capsules. "I figured if we started to run low on anything we can always stop by a store at some point."

"Makes sense." Goten agreed and turned his attention to examining the attached pantry, already running through possible ideas of meals to make. It'd be interesting having a kitchen mostly to himself without his mother's constant hovering. It wasn't that he didn't like helping her, he really loved it in fact, but she was always watching to make sure he did things right on the first try. Never gave him the room to try doing things a different way or to lean by trial and error, it would be a nice change of pace to be given the room to make some mistakes.

"Look there's even two bedrooms," Marron called out from down the hall, before she walked back into the main room, "You guys can take one and I'll be in the other, just keep the sex contained to your room and give me a heads up."

"What!" Goten, well it was best described as _yelped._ Trunks, the lucky bastard, managed to sound much more in control when he responded, "What makes you think that we'd be having sex?"

"Because you're teenage boys and are dating?" Marron said, and Goten hated that she seemed confused by their response more than anything else. "I mean it's not like I care if you guys are or are not, I'm just saying I would want to know when to blast music so I don't have to hear anything."

"Who told you we were dating?" Goten demanded, an edge of hysteria in his voice. Trying to work through who could h

"No one? I just, wait-" She looked between them both as if waiting to be let in on a joke, "I'm sorry, was I not supposed to know? I promise I won't tell anyone if that's what you're worried about?" It was her honest bewilderment that made everything worse.

Goten exchanged a panicked glance with Trunks, trying to work out what their response should be. Thankfully Trunks took the lead, "Okay so _maybe_ we've been keeping it a secret, and no one knows about it."

"Huh, that's- are you sure?" Marron held up her hands in surrender under the might of their combined glares at that. "Hey! I'm just surprised is all, why do you guys feel you need to be so secretive? It's not like your parents are going to be somewhat understanding? I mean they're certainly not homophobic or anything, what with your Dads and all. Oh, wait, are you not telling them because it's weird weird that your dads are also like together?

"No!" Yes, but that wasn't the whole reason. Goten was now hiding his face in his hands. Hhe never wanted to be having this conversation with anyone, but especially not in the here and now.

"We just don't want anyone to know yet, because, because people will make it weird and stuff." Goten stammered out, well aware that he was probably blushing with embarrassment.

Marron rolled her eyes. "Okay whatever, you do you Goten, or do Trunks, I really don't care so long as I don't have to hear it or see it. I'll make you guys a deal, I won't tell anyone anything you guys do on this trip, so long as anything beyond kissing and hand holding stays out of a public space. Deal?"

"That's-" Goten began but was cut off by Trunks responding. "Deal."

Goten looked over at Trunks, and could _see_ his brain whirring and trying to work out how to turn this situation to his advantage, probably excited by realizing that Marron's presence wouldn't stifle some of his plans for the summer. Which, okay, Goten didn't know what to do with, so he turned back to Marron.

"How did you know?" Because that was the most important question to figure out.

Marron shrugged. "I dunno, guess I was just assuming. Might have also been partly because of your guys's ki?"

"Huh?" That was such an unexpected answer that Goten was completely thrown by it.

"Your ki," Marron said, "both of yours is always reacting, and when you're standing near each other it bleeds into each other's a bit. I've only seen it happen before when couples were being, like, really close. I happened to notice a while back that your guys' does it like all the time, so I just figured?"

"I didn't know that happened." Goten had never heard of someone reading someone's relationship status in their ki before.

"I mean it's not like it's super obvious, unless you're really tuned in to ki and were looking for it I doubt you'd notice," Marron shrugged. "I'm just really sensitive to reading ki, I think?"

Well that was somewhat reassuring, no one else had ever mentioned anything like that before so it probably hadn't been noticed by anyone else. Now that they were aware it was a thing they wouldn't be caught off-guard in the future by someone else picking up the same cues.

But now something else was bothering Goten. "Marron, what did you mean when you said Trunks and I could," he couldn't bring himself to say and found himself tripping over his own words, "I mean of course we won't, I wouldn't want to make you uncomfortable or anything like that."

Marron rolled her eyes, "It's fine Goten, I'm well aware about the existence of sex, I'm not a kid. And like I've said already, it's fine if you and Trunks want to hook up so long as you keep it in the privacy of your own room and let me know when to play music. And keep your porn in there too, please."

Goten was sure his face was turning beet red. "That's not- I don't read-"

Marron shrugged, "Oh. Well I do."

"You're 13! You're way too young!"

"I'm just reading it, what's the harm in that? it's educational."

At his glare, she continued. "Also, I hate to be the one to break it to you, but I grew up at Kame House. I was aware of the existence of porn for years. I mean Roshi kept his magazines locked in his room, because otherwise Dad would get really angry, but I was like, vaguely aware of all that junk."

"Well that's just irresponsible."

"Eh? My parents didn't see the point in sheltering me or lying to me, they always said if I ever had any questions about stuff I could go to them."

"You're still too young." Goten grumped, feeling like an old man at the age of seventeen.

That night Goten got to experience the novelty of actually sharing a bed with Trunks for the first time in years, they hadn't done it since they were kids. Even when he spent the nights over at Capsule Corp they were always careful enough for him to slip back into the guest room that was all but officially his, lest they get discovered in the morning. Besides Goten always woke up much earlier than Trunks and it was nice not having to worry about waking him up in the morning.

Though maybe that wasn't as big a problem as Goten believed because come the next morning when he _was_ trying to finally rouse Trunks, he was finding it exceedingly difficult. Goten had to resort to violently shaking him to finally get some response from him. "Trunks, come on wake up, it's 8 AM, the sun and I have been up for hours, time to get out of bed."

"Ten no, it's too early, let me sleep in, come on, it's summer vacation," Trunks mumbled out a litany of excuses and buried himself further under the covers.

"Well I want to get a spar in before it gets too hot, so wake up already."

Trunks moved so that his head was now hiding under his pillow and his responses became less comprehensible and more a series of loud noises of pure guttural protest.

Goten sighed and pulled out one of his trump cards. "I'll suck you off after."

Trunks's noises abruptly stopped before starting up again, still no more intelligible though were clearly much less adverse and more intrigued. Taking it as a promising sign Goten continued, "Did you get a good look at the shower in the bathroom? It's pretty big, I bet we'll both fit in it if we try."

Trunks unearthed his face from beneath the pillow, "Why do I have to be a part of the workout, can't you just go train by yourself and I join you in the shower after?"

"No deal, if you're not helping me work up a sweat you don't get to be there when I wash it off."

"Oh, I'll help you work up a sweat and it won't be through training," Trunks was trying for a seductive look, but it was completely ruined by the fact he still sounded half-asleep and his ridiculous bedhead.

"Come on Trunks, training is more fun with you. Will you please get up." Goten pleaded with that tiny tremor in his voice, which paired with making his eyes as big as possible, was another one of his guaranteed argument winners.

"Ugh, fine, fine. I'm getting up, just give me a little."

Taking his win, Goten walked out back to see Marron had finished her breakfast and was poking at the sketchbook he'd left on the table. She looked up when he came into the room, "I heard you coming inside this morning, where these what you were working on?"

"Yeah," Goten said feeling a little embarrassed,"they're all reference stuff for some future landscape projects. I was up early anyways and wanted to do capture some of the local scenery while we're out here."

"The drawings are interesting, the details are all really simple, but it looks like you were focusing on the natural ki lines of the Earth, with the trees and stuff?"

"Oh you recognized them?" That didn't always happen, not everyone Goten showed his work to could sense ki well enough to pick up on what he was going for. He was pretty sure Inka was convinced he was a bit of a new-age nut. "Yeah, they're to go with the photos I was taking, you know you can't really capture ki readings in photography. I mean, sure, if we're throwing around big attacks, you can get those beams and balls of light, but not the natural amounts you have with regular living creatures. So if I want to take reference photos for projects later I have to improvise in the moment. I have to do it in the early morning if I want to get the ki of the plant life before they switch over to their day cycle where they're taking in energy instead of giving it off."

"Huh, that's really neat. Do you have any finished drawings where you captured ki in them?"

"Yeah, I think I have some of it with me." Goten went over to the coffee table where he'd left his tablet to charge after some reading last night. It had been a birthday present from Trunks a few years back, it had a super high definition display and a giant memory storage bank. Trunks had assembled the tablet himself, and had been really excited about the hologram projector it had on it, but those files always took up way to much space which could be better used for some art apps if Goten felt the itch to do some digital work on the go, but mostly it was used to house his giant library of comic files and art reference pictures.

He pulled up one of his project folders and was showing Marron some old work when Trunks eventually staggered out into the room, going straight for the coffee maker like a zombie possessed, before grabbing two of his special protein drinks from the fridge and taking a seat at the table and starting on the first of the bottled drinks.

Goten was very familiar with said drinks, Trunks _wouldn't shut up_ about them for the past year. Trunks had decided that the extra time in bed was a better use of his time in the mornings than eating breakfast, probably inspired by Stapular's constant preaching about how skipping the meal helped him focus, but mostly just out of laziness.

But unlike their human friend, Trunks's biology simply wouldn't let him maintain a morning fast that long, his body needed the calories. So his solution had been to work with his mother to develop the drinks to have in place of an actual meal. Highly caloric and packed with protein, a single one would probably last a full day for an average person. They also had the texture and taste of thick chalky milk. Goten had tried one at Trunks's instance and was not eager to repeat the experience.

Marron reached over and took the one Trunks wasn't chugging and sniffed it before wrinkling her nose, "Appetizing."

"They taste as good as they look." Goten added as Trunks finished the first one with a grimace.

"Then why is he drinking them?" Why indeed.

"I don't eat solids before noon, what am I, a savage?" Trunks retorted and started to inhale his coffee.

"No, you're a highly refined genetically enhanced being with a history of impeccable breeding." Marron responded.

"Don't you forget it."

"Oh, I guess it's too early for sarcasm," Marron sounded more chagrined than Goten had ever heard her before. "My bad."

Trunks ignored her comment. "I need like 10,000 calories a day, and I need to get them in somehow."

Goten sighed, "You know you could just eat food, like people have done since time immemorial."

"Yeah but then I'm wasting time cooking and all that junk, it's easier just to do this. It's called biohacking."

Goten resisted the urge to roll his eyes, "Biohacking is just your dumb term made up for people who are too lazy to just cook food like a normal people."

"Do you know how much time it would take to cook and eat a regular breakfast for myself?"

"Yes. Because I do it. I like actual food and not your engineered liquid substance. Look, I even made breakfast for Marron."

"By the way, _Gochisōsama, _Goten. Thank you for making me an omelette even when you were already making five for yourself."

"You're welcome, Marron." Goten turned back to Trunks who was still nursing his coffee and hadn't started on the second drink, "Come on Trunks. I want to get a morning spar in before we can move out for the day."

Trunks sighed and rolled his eyes dramatically, "Oh what sins did I commit in a past life to deserve being stuck with an early riser for a sparring partner?" He asked his coffee mug as if it held the answers.

"I'm sure you did plenty," Marron said cheerfully. "You can ask King Yenma to see your record book."

"Well I guess that's something to look forward to doing next time I die."

Twenty minutes later and he and Trunks were finally outside getting warmed up. Goten looked up from his stretches to see Marron dragging a chair outside with her laptop under her other arm.

"You going to watch?" Goten called out to her, unsure what to think. He wasn't used to their sparring having an audience, but then again Marron was a lot better than someone like Vegeta with his judgmental glares.

"Sure, why not? So long as you guys don't mind it. I'm not going to be paying full attention, but sparring makes for nice background noise while I read."

"You say that like you're used to it? Parents do it a lot?" Trunks asked as he finished his leg pulls.

"Yeah, sometimes." Marron said. "Though it's more a workout for my Dad than my Mom, she really just does it for the sake of it."

"Ha, your mom is a workout machine," Trunks taunted. Goten thought about adding a reassurance that coming from Trunks the comment should be taken more of a compliment than an insult, but Marron got the spirit of it. "I guess she is," she laughed.

And then, _finally_, they were able to start actually getting into the swing of sparring, the warmup throws exchanged and the blows picking up speed. They weren't in a gravity room so it was more about working on a test of speed than of pure strength. Moving as fast as they were, it would have been impossible to track by the naked eye and could only be followed if one was tracking them by their ki.

Goten was able to start to lose himself in the flow, where he was more movement than thought, not having to think about _anything._ Goten loved that he never had to worry about holding back whenever he was fighting with Trunks, he could handle anything that Goten wanted to dish out. Didn't have to be mindful of a strength disparity, no he could just cut loose and throw himself headlong into the fight at full force.

Even if Trunks won more of their fights than he lost, it usually came down to him not being stronger but more liable to and simply better at cheating than Goten. Which didn't even rankle Goten that much anymore, not when most of the stakes for their fights were stuff like winner got first dibs at attention the next time they were getting intimate.

Goten knew he was lucky.

He'd seen the friendly sparring Gohan and Videl did, where Videl was giving it her all and Gohan was focusing more on holding back than anything else. Or back when he was a kid and his mom had been training Goten himself in the basics of martial arts, she had to always keep reminding him to pull his punches. Then when Goku had come back and Goten got to be on the other side of the equation, when he was the one throwing everything into hitting an impossible target that easily took every blow.

But it wasn't like that with Trunks, Goten didn't have to worry about being delicate with like his mom, but also wasn't being condescended to like with his dad. No, he didn't have to hold back with Trunks because they could both give it their all without worrying about the consequences, they were both hardy enough to take a serious beating and bounce back after even stronger than they were before.

Why was that so reassuring to him? The not having to ever worry, because it was fine, it was safe, it was Trunks. It was perfect, a truth that flowed through them as much as the blood coursed through their veins.

And then of course as the sparring session started to wind down, something else began to wind up. Their fighting became more close quarters and they were grappling more than was strictly necessary, the rush of combat bleeding away into an entirely different rush but one that was just as familiar to Goten.

Then Trunks went for a spectacularly dirty move, and grabbed Goten's dick.

"Oi Ten, I think you're letting yourself get distracted," Trunks teased and the next touch was a _lot_ gentler and slower but still had that strength behind it. "I think that means the win belongs to me."

"You know not every hardon I have is an open invitation for you," Goten retorted, not sure if he was lying more to Trunks or himself with those words.

"I don't know, I mean I'm the cause of it, I think it belongs to me," Trunks _smirked,_ and then he was moving his hand and Goten couldn't help but roll his hips _into_ his grip instead of trying to resist. All the while Trunks continued talking with that casual confidence that _did things_ to Goten, "I'm pretty confident you aren't getting hard sparring with anyone else. And it's only right for me to claim my prize, come on Ten, let me finish what I started."

"Meet me in the shower," Goten groaned out, letting Trunks talk him into it like he always did.

Like he'd done every time before, ever since that first sparring session after they'd both stepped out the other side of puberty.

Puberty had come roaring loud and hard for the both of them.

Goten had had a miserable several weeks where he was exhausted all day and couldn't sleep at night because his mind was racing, and everything was driving him crazy. It had seemed like in less than a month he'd shot up a foot and a half and his body completely changed over night. He had to get a new bed, new clothes, and he kept hitting his head on doorways now. He was famished constantly and for the first time was eating more than Goku or Gohan. He'd been so miserable that his mother had even taken pity on him and let him turn in all his schoolwork remotely as he didn't even think he could really manage flying to meet the homeschooling instructor he normally saw once every week.

Of course, this also meant he was too tired to even consider flying to Capsule Corp so he and Trunks had had to resort to instant messaging and calling to keep in touch. Their mutual distaste for video calls had ensured that Goten was not prepared for what awaited him when Trunks showed up on day once the pains and nerves had begun to die down.

There'd been a knock at his window followed by, "Hey Goten, it's me. Please tell me you didn't grow a tail and have been neglecting to mention it? Dad said it was possible if unlikely and now I'm terrified one's going to suddenly appear."

"No tail for me." Goten reassured as he opened it up and let his best friend into his room, and was shocked to see who stepped through his window. Trunks was taller for sure, but also his entire face had changed, cheeks less full of baby fat, leaving a much more refined look in their place. Goten didn't know what to make of it, it was so different than what he was used to seeing it felt downright surreal, but surely he'd adjust?

Trunks seemed as struck by seeing Goten as Goten was him. "Wow, uh, you really might want to think about getting a haircut Chibi. Well Chibi no longer, I guess."

"Huh?" Goten asked stupidly, still trying to process the sharpness of Trunks's cheekbones.

"You look," and here Trunks paused to brush one of Goten's locks of hair out of his face and Goten was now paying all sorts of attention to the touch, "_a lot_ like Goku right now."

Suddenly the weird looks he'd been getting the past few days from his mom and Gohan, and that surprised double take Goku had given him, were beginning to make a lot more sense.

"Oh wow, meet me in the bathroom with a pair of scissors? Like right now, please?"

Trunks laughed and his voice was deeper now, "Yeah, a new haircut sounds like a good idea, might as well do it now, already gonna have to get used to a bunch of other new things," then he paused and gave Goten another look. "Wait, are you _taller_ than me, Chibi?"

"Maybe?" Goten said, taking another look at their eyeline himself, "Last time I measured I was at 175 cm, assuming I haven't gained any more in the past two days, and I don't think I have."

"That's what, 5'9? So you got two inches on me. Oh man, this is bullshit, I'm a year older and now you're the tall one? Puberty fucking sucks."

Goten laughed at the pout on Trunks's face, "Hah, yeah isn't it kinda weird that this happened for us at the same time? I mean you are a year older."

Trunks threw his arms up, "I don't know, from what little Dad said he made it seem like puberty might be a bit different for us than regular Earthlings? I think my mom called yours and they talked about it or something, because a week ago I got some offhand comment from Dad about synchronization of agemates and fuck all else, which doesn't actually explain anything and leaves me with more questions, but the fact that Dad's not surprised means something? I think?"

"I hate that we have to play divine the Saiyan stuff from your Dad."

"Ugh, tell me about it. I'm sure Gohan's been a much better help for you."

"I mean yeah he's answered some of the questions I had, but he's as much of a wreck hearing them as I am asking them, so I haven't exactly asked about much."

"God you guys are such a family of socially awkward nerds, no wonder you're all a bunch of mountain recluses." Trunks was giving Goten's hair a thoughtful and calculating look. "Well come on, let's go figure out what parts of your hair to chop off."

And Goten had really and truly thought at that moment that they'd reached the limit for all the surprises that the changes had brought. He'd been completely unprepared for the revelations that hit him when they'd flown off to spar later. They'd gone to one of the usual spots a good ways away from the house to not disturb anyone with the noise or possibly even stray energy blasts.

It started like so many times before, though much slower and more clumsy as they were both readjusting to different centers of gravity and figuring out just how long their new limbs could reach.

But the real change didn't hit until the tail end of the fight. Trunks had managed to pin Goten, a semi-frequent occurrence sure, but the second Goten looked into Trunks's gloating face he had a completely different reaction than the many times before.

The rush of arousal filled the air, and it was like someone had turned up the color saturation on a moment from grayscale to painfully bright at once. Judging by how quickly Trunks had frozen and loosened his grip, Goten hadn't been the only one to feel the surprise. (Trunks would later compare it, in a long rambling analogy of which the general gist, was completing a circuit that was live for the first time.) And Goten knew that if he was smart he could have seized the moment to turn it to his advantage, move a limb sharp enough to break Trunks's hold, but he didn't, because he found he didn't want to.

The weird thing was how not weird it was. It should have been, right? Should have been something bigger deal, should have been something huge and monumental, a moment that forever changed things, and of course endlessly more embarrassing. But it wasn't.

"Come on, Goten, it's fine, don't make this weird. It's just us."

And here is the thing about Trunks and Goten, yeah Trunks is the one who leads, he's the one who gets them into trouble, he's the instigator and the bad influence. And oh Goten bickers and argues with him, but that's fun, that's normal. But the truth of it all was Goten can't be talked into doing anything he really, truly, doesn't want to do, and if he keeps letting Trunks talk him into getting into trouble it was because he just made trouble sound like so much fun.

So Goten leaned into his touch, into the rush and the surge of blood in his ears and that weird electric current between them. Let's Trunks slip his hand under the band on his gi and grab his growing erection and Goten moving to return the favor.

It's just Trunks. It's not like it's a big deal or anything. Not like this is anything momentous. Certainly not something he'd just realized he'd been thinking about for a while in half finished thoughts that he'd never put together in just the right way to reveal the whole picture. It was just Trunks.

So the first time Goten ever had sex with someone else, and it was an exchange of messy handjobs outside in a field during the middle of the day that left them with filthy clothes.

He didn't know then that it would become such a regular and entrenched part of him and Trunks from then on. All of their spars now had that extra tinge of sensuality, making it an impossibility to not smell, to not know when the other was enjoying the fighting a little too much.

But at the end of it, what was really different? They were still just what they had always been, best friends and everything that came with it. So what if their fights ended differently now, it didn't mean anything had changed. This was just an extension of what they've always been.

They never needed labels and terms. Because that would make things weird, there was no need.

Goten knew Trunks was his best friend, that was absolute, so what's wrong with staying with that? Sure they were a lot more than that, but that was never going to change was it? So it was better to keep using that term and not any of the scary new ones that could maybe apply.

Now, two years later they'd done a lot more since, but there was still something about the thrum in Goten's blood after a sparring match that excited him.

"Hey what did I say!" Marron yelled at them, her gaze steadily fixed on her laptop and Goten bet it was on purpose.

"Don't worry, we're going inside, we need to shower now. You might want to start up your music though." Trunks called over to her. Marron's only response was to do just that.

Turns out that the stall _was_ big enough for the both of them, but only just barely, and it was a tight fit. The shower only ended after they suddenly found they'd depleted all the hot water. Goten made good on his promise and more, leaving the shower sore in places he wasn't before but it was a good familiar ache. Maybe a lifetime of love for martial arts, or just his stupid, stupid biology, that had warped his senses because he always enjoyed the comfortable pain of sore muscles, it made him feel accomplished and satiated.

So did seeing the bite marks and bruising on Trunks's neck, free from the worry of having to keep them hidden under their clothing from prying eyes Goten might have gotten a little carried away, but Trunks certainly hadn't seemed to mind. They earned themselves a snarky comment or two from Marron when they were dressed and ready to start preparing for the day's drive.

The route to the first Dragon Ball was taking them through more uninhabited areas so Goten had Marron help him whip up some lunch to put in a separate capsule while Trunks was working on establishing a rotation of fuel cells between Cerise and the other cars he brought to give them enough time to recharge before the next usage.

Trunks reassured them that he had at least one car that would run on gasoline if it came to it, but hovercars always worked much better on fuel cells and Goten stopped listening and started humming appreciatively when Trunks started to get into why this was the case. Marron did not yet know the trick to tolerating Trunks's rambles and was looking lost at his words. She didn't know that Trunks rambled about tech because he had a torrent of thoughts that were racing each other to be the first out of his mouth and that while spoken they weren't exactly trying to be heard by an outside listener.

It wasn't until they'd been driving for a bit that Marron hit pause after the last song finished up and asked, "Okay, question for you both, if you guys are sparring like that three times a week, why was Goku on your case back at the Budokai about training more?"

Goten wasn't going to question how Marron had overheard and instead ran his hand over his face before replying, "Mainly because I'm a terrible training partner for him. Not just because of the strength disparity, even if I went Super and he stayed in base, it's still terrible to try to keep up with him. But mainly because it's absolutely no fun for me. I mean I love fighting when it's with Trunks, but otherwise? I mean it's okay I guess. Dad's mostly upset I'm not more into it."

Trunks agreed, "Dad doesn't even really try to train with me at all, probably knows that's a lost cause and just end up being frustrated. It's better for everyone if it's him giving up the Gravity Chamber for me and Goten thrice a week, which is a baseline '_satisfactory' _amount to him. He only barely tolerates us giving up one of the sessions of sparring for dancing, and that's only because we crank up the gravity for it. The things I do for Goten."

Goten elbowed him, "Oh stop acting like I'm forcing you into it, I know you have fun."

Goten glanced back and saw that Marron had lit up, "Oh dancing, that does sound like fun. I know that my parents like doing salsa dancing in the city sometimes, Mom says the people who have the most fun doing it are the ones who have the right partner for it."

That was the thing wasn't it? It was always about having the right partner, and when Goten was with Trunks, he was never more certain that they were meant for each other. He just wished he had an idea of what they were meant for and what it meant for them.


	5. Living Young and Running Wild

**(Goten)**

The first ball turned out to be in the nest of a very large and angry bird who was under the impression it was one of its eggs and was rather upset with them for trying to take it. After several failed attempts at trying to quietly approach and get the ball when the bird was seemingly asleep all they'd accomplished was sending the bird into high alert and Marron had some scratches on her arms.

They regrouped back at the capsule house they set up a good distance away to avoid alarming the bird too much and discuss plans as to how to go about retrieving the ball. Trunks was all for a full frontal assault, "Okay, here me out, we just _make _the bird move and take the ball."

Goten was less sure, "Could we do that without harming the bird, and what about the eggs those could be at risk?"

Trunks scoffed, "Who cares if the bird gets hurt? Worse case scenario we can just eat it."

"We can't do that, this is Yellow-Tailed Mountain Condor!" Marron declared as if that should mean something.

"So?" Trunks responded, baffled. "Is it like poisonous or something?"

"No, they're endangered!" Marron stomped her foot. "And they only mate to lay eggs once every seven years, so we can't afford to hurt the eggs either."

"How is it my fault that the damn birds don't fuck enough to have more little bird babies." Trunks groaned running a hand over his face, before turning back to Marron, "How do you even know what kind of bird it is?"

"Because Uncle 17 gave me a book on birds for my birthday a few years back," Marron paused, before continuing, "I don't know why? I didn't ask for it, but it was cool to look at. It had a lot of really nice paintings and photographs of birds."

But her words were enough to convince Goten. "If the birds endangered then we're absolutely not gonna hurt it, or the eggs," he said.

Trunks responded with an exaggerated eye-roll that involved moving his entire head so that his hair flipped like he was trying to imitate one of those women in a hair commercial. "Nature is stupid."

"You were the one who wanted to go on a camping trip," Goten reminded him, trying to not let on how annoyed he really was. "Besides, if nature's so stupid then we shouldn't have a problem outsmarting one bird."

"Hey, I have a question," Marron interrupted, "are either of you familiar with the _mafuba _?"

It sounded vaguely familiar. "Isn't that the thing where you seal evil demons and stuff in jars? Like what happened with King Piccolo?" Goten said after a moment of recollecting.

"Now, I hate that stupid bird more than anyone here but I'm pretty sure it isn't _that _bad," said Trunks.

"Also I'm pretty sure the _mafuba _can sometimes fatal on the user?" Goten added, now seriously wondering why Marron had brought it up.

"Yeah if you're not that experienced at it and are trying to seal away something stronger than you," Marron said, her hands gesturing wildly as she continued. "But we're not focusing on that part, the earlier stages of it lets you temporarily stun a target and hold them in place. If one of you just does it for a second that might give us enough time for someone else to quickly grab it and then we can let the bird go. No harm, no foul, and no harming the fowl."

"I don't know how to do it," Goten admitted. Trunks didn't know it either. They were stumped for a moment before Marron was excitedly checking her phone. "Wait, wait, I think I have a video of Piccolo teaching the technique."

"Why do you have that?" asked Trunks and when he didn't get a response he turned to Goten, "Who keeps giving her things?" Goten shrugged.

"I think Bulma sent it to my Dad a few years ago," Marron said when she looked up. "I saved it because it's a cool technique. Here you can watch him do it. Remember we're not trying to copy him to seal away the bird, just see how the beginning of it works so you can paralyze it for a split second."

They watched the video and saw Piccolo awkwardly waving at the camera before demonstrating the technique while Bulma cheered him on in her 'parent indulging their child' voice that was sadly very familiar to Goten, how many times had he heard Bulma using it when Trunks was trying to show off to get her attention?

The technique itself was pretty advanced, but most of the complexity came from the latter stages when you were forcing a resistant being into a confined space. The beginning where you were holding them in place with your own ki didn't look that complicated.

Marron volunteered to be the test subject and they were able to figure it out pretty quickly practicing with her trying to run at them and them holding her in place. Though maybe they should have tried on a less obliging target because when they went back to the condor the resistance felt was a lot harder. But they were successful, and one mostly unharmed, if slightly traumatized, bird later they had the first ball.

The second Dragon Ball was in a mountainous gorge. It had managed to wedge itself into a very deep crevice and they'd actually had to resort to breaking apart most of a cliff to make an opening big enough to let them reach the ball.

That was also the day that it was decided by a vote of two to Trunks that they were having a campfire that night. What did it matter that the capsule house had a stove and heater, it wasn't the same as an open pit of fire. And besides, argued Marron, everyone knew s'mores could only be made on a campfire, they couldn't get the delicious charcoal taste otherwise. It also made for a fun way to work through the giant package of hotdogs in the fridge. Goten was enjoying his experiments with roasting them for different periods of time and distance from the flames and seeing how it affected their taste.

It was towards the end of dinner when Goten and Trunks had moved onto making s'mores and Marron had long since finished eating that she asked, "So, we're already been doing this for a week and neither of you have informed me of why you guys wanted to do this quest in the first place. What is so important that you need to make a wish to Shenron for?"

That was a good question, and one that Goten had felt rolling around in his head since they started the trip. When Trunks had told him about the trip he'd intentionally neglected to mention what the wish he wanted to go this whole trip for even was, for whatever reason Trunks was playing this close to the chest, _probably _because he didn't want to be talked out of it.

"Umm, honestly I don't know what I want to use my wish for yet," Goten confessed and put his s'more down on his plate. "I mean, sure there's a bunch of things that I'd _like _, money, drawing supplies, drawing talent, but nothing that really seems worth using a whole wish you know? I don't want us to waste a wishes on something we can get otherwise, it has to only be available through magic."

"Yeah, I get where you're coming from," said Marron, and started to poke the fire with a stick, causing one of the logs crumble in half. "I know what I want to use my wish on, it's something I've been sort of thinking about for a while but Gohan's show just made me realize for reals, so you ever think about just how big our universe is? And that's only just Universe 7, there's 12 of them! There must be so many things going on out there, and I want to have a way to find out about it. I'm going to ask Shenron for some sort of device that lets me get connected to all the information out there, like the universe wide internet if that's a thing that exists. I hate being kept in the dark from everything that's going on."

After Goten and Trunks voiced their agreement that that seemed like a good wish, Marron turned on Trunks, "And what about you Trunks, what could the boy who has everything possibly want to wish for?"

"It's a secret." Trunks teased in a sing-song voice, the dancing firelight making his shit-eating grin look particularly diabolical.

"Oh come on, I told you my wish," Marron whined.

"I guess you'll guys will just have to wait till we summon Shenron to find out," Trunks laughed and took his marshmallow out of the fire, having completely abandoned the crackers and chocolate and was just eating them off the stick now. Any of the previous intimidating appearance was completely ruined by how silly he looked doing so. After he finished he tacked on, "But I will tell you guys this, it's going to be _awesome." _

If Goten was more responsible he wouldn't be letting Trunks get away with the runaround but quite honestly he was curious as to what Trunks was plotting and perfectly content to let events play out even if it meant regretting the choice later.

"I tremble in fear," Marron said before changing the subject. "You know this is fun, it reminds me of the last time we did the campfire, remember on Uncle's island with all those animals?"

Goten did remember, it had been during the big tournament between the universes that the top Gods had put on. A tournament they had not heard the details of till after it was over.

Trunks snorted, "I remember having to rescue you because you kept trying to feed the Cell Juniors and needed to be rescued when they tried to eat you."

"I wanted to make friends with them and besides I got one of them to settle on the s'mores," corrected Marron.

Goten laughed, "Yeah, in between trying to bite you. What did you name him anyway? The one you insisted was your friend even when he kept trying to eat your hair?"

"Nibbler! "Marron laughed with delight, "And he was alright so long as I kept giving him things to gnaw on."

Trunks sat up from his sprawl in his chair, "You know, I still can't believe you knew about the Tournament of Power going on while our parents lied to us. How unfair is that?"

Marron shrugged, "Mom doesn't see the point in lying to me about things. Besides, it's not like I was going to do anything with the information. I mean I'm not the one of the ones who upon hearing that Frieza is invading the Earth came flying in fused to crotch-shot one of Frieza's men."

Oh, that.

"Krillin told you about that, didn't he." Goten asked, his voice slightly strained under the weight of absolute mortification he felt at the memory.

"Damn right, he did." The smugness Marron said it with did nothing to help Goten's regret.

Trunks even seemed mildly chagrined as he started on trying to defend himself, "Okay first of all, I was a child-"

"You were my age."

"Second of all, it turned out fine in the end-"

"Didn't Frieza blow up the planet and Whis had to rewind time to fix it?"

"Okay to be fair," Goten interrupted, "I think that was mostly my Dad's fault for not taking the situation seriously? And maybe also partly Vegeta's because they were insisting on taking turns."

"Right, dumb Saiyans being dumb. What else is new." Goten wasn't exactly going to argue that point.

"And thirdly," Trunks continued undaunted, "I'm tired of our parents and everyone else withholding important information from us because they think they know better. We have a right to know things and they can't keep us in the dark just because they think we're too young."

Oh, so that's what Trunks was going to use his wish on. Goten didn't know how and what specifically Trunks was going to wish for he was confident that he'd hit upon the right sentiment. Goten didn't share his revelation, but judging from the circumspect look Marron had she caught the hint too.

"Maybe they think you guys are better off not knowing things?" offered Marron. "That or they don't trust you two to not be overconfident idiots."

"We're not!" Goten protested, before thinking better of it and correcting himself, "Well okay Gotenks is, but he's his own person and has his own issues. He's even more arrogant that Trunks ever is."

"Which is weird if you think about it," said Trunks, "because if he's a fusion of me and Goten you'd think it'd even out to be less so?"

"I like that you're not arguing the point that you're an arrogant narcissist, Trunks," Marron said.

Trunks held up his arms in mock surrender, "I mean, can you blame me? I'm me." Goten snorted into his drink.

Truth was Gotenks was a bit of an enigma. Sure Goten had his memories of what it was like when they were fused, but it was like looking in on a stranger's mind. Gotenks wasn't Goten or Trunks he was both and at the same time he was neither, he thought in ways that didn't mesh with either of them and his prioritizes were heavily skewed towards showing off and impulsive decisions. Unbelievably he'd gotten even less helpful since they were kids. The last time they'd fused on a lark Gotenks had completely ignored the reason they'd fused for and spent the entire time jerking off about how strong he was. Which was something that Goten was never going to admit to anyone. Ever.

"Well at least the Tournament of Power turned out alright, our parents won in the end and saved all the other universes," said Goten.

"Uh excuse you, Uncle 17 was the one who won."

"No 17 is just your uncle. He's not your parent that doesn't count," argued Trunks.

"Fine," Marron huffed, "but I had both my Mom and Dad in that big Tournament that Zenos had. So I still win."

Goten was not in the mood for a parental bragging contest so he changed the subject to a question he'd had for a while. "Hey Marron, why do you call them No 17 and 18, and not like their normal names? They were humans once, right? So they should have them."

"Because those are their names now," Marron said. "They aren't the same people they were before Dr. Gero turned them into artificial humans."

Oh now Goten was really curious, "So, it really changed them?"

Marron put down her fire poking stick and looked up at the sky. "Yeah, Mom says everything was different after. She doesn't feel things like she once did, she said it's like viewing everything through a dulling filter, things have less color, emotions less intense. She says she only remembers vaguely what it was like to be truly happy."

That sounded terrible. "I'm sorry that happened to her," Goten offered unsure of what else he could say.

Marron shrugged, "It is what it is. Besides just because emotions aren't as intense doesn't mean she doesn't have them. She still likes some things, like her favorite flowers. And shiny things. And Dad always getting her favorite dessert from this little bakery on Thursdays. She says it's all about the small things now, even if they can't make her happy she can still find something nice about them.

"She and Uncle still have their minds and they can like things on an intellectual level. That's why Uncle loves animals so much, they're not capable of being cruel like humans, everything is simpler for them. Actually come to think of it, Mom doesn't like people all that much either."

"I mean neither does my Dad," Trunks said. "No one hates people like he does."

"No, I'm not talking about disliking social interaction or dealing with weaklings or whatever multitude of issues Vegeta has," Marron waved her hand, gesturing widely as if her hands alone could not account for all of the issues Vegeta contained. "She doesn't like people much at all, like individually or as a whole, sees them as annoying, self-centered, and cruel. Even the exceptions are still selfish in their own ways. She told me once that she figures if all the Earthlings died out that the planet would be better off for it."

"Uh," Goten began but wasn't sure how to continue, he felt like he should argue against it out of obligation but didn't know where to start.

Marron continued, "But she also understands that everyone is just living their lives like she is, and everyone's self-centered like that. So it's not like there isn't some beauty in it. Sure my mom doesn't care about much, but she tries. And isn't that the most important part, the trying? Being a selfish person and doing the right thing in spite of it? That's how I think mom and Uncle see it anyways." She looked at Goten, "Isn't that how it is with your dad?"

Well yeah when you put it like that, Goku was one of the most selfish people Goten knew of. Fighting was his first priority, always. Protecting his friends and family came next and the Earth was a distant third. Goku was kind-hearted and wanted to do the right thing when it was presented in front of him, but he was a fighter and a Saiyan before he was anything else. Including a father.

Conversation died down shortly thereafter and Goten found himself looking up at the sky and thinking about the stars and his place in them. He was an Earthling, he knew that deep in his blood and bones, more than just the place he lived or the heritage from his mom, but he felt it deep in his soul. He belonged on Earth. But a part of him, a smaller part, called to him from the depths of space. He was made from Stardust and Earth blood and it mixed together to form Goten, the only Goten that there was.

He'd always thought only Trunks could get it, and that had made things easier growing up, having someone to talk to. Sure Goten always had Gohan, but that was a sensitive subject. Gohan would always answer his questions about their father when he was asked, but even as a kid Goten could see how much it pained his brother to talk about it. And Goten would do anything to prevent Gohan from feeling that grief, so he stopped asking. That's why he'd asked his mother to train him and hadn't bothered Gohan about it.

But now he was left with a Gohan that liked sheltering Goten as much as everyone else did. Gohan who had always been allowed to be out there fighting, who got to save the world from Cell, who got to fight in the Tournament of Power, and who made sure that Goten never had to face the same struggles. Yes Goten knew that he was lucky he never _had _to, but he'd like to have had the chance. No, he was doomed to be sitting on the sidelines _hearing _about fights he had to hope everyone made it back from, not able to be out there ensuring it with his own fists.

But maybe Marron had an idea of what it was like too. Not the Saiyan part obviously, but knowing the truth about how strange and scary everything really was. Having to put up with parents going off to fight because the universe was in danger yet again and knowing what stakes were on the line. Knowing how big the universe was and feeling that helplessness at not doing anything to influence it. But wanting to do something about it anyway, even if they didn't quite know yet what it was.

**(Marron)**

_The following transcription is from a now deleted video that was filmed in Age 784 and was the earliest upload to the Godtube channel run by Marron. To those more familiar with Marron's later videos, the format of this one might not meet the standards of the later ones. It has been transcribed by a dedicated fan. _

_Video Begins: _

_Shaky footage of Marron holding the camera out and filming herself in profile mode, the sound is muffled because the camera is picking up some slight wind. _

Marron: Hello and Welcome to Blowing Shit Up With Saiyans, working title, I'm your host Marron and here we are going to watch our Saiyans in question, Goten and Trunks blow shit up for the entertainment of all our viewers! Let's talk with our first co-host, Trunks!

_The camera shifts to focusing on Trunks who is surrounded by many bags and containers with hand-scrawled labels on them. He is shuffling them and not looking up at the camera. _

Trunks: I do not consent for this footage to be uploaded to the internet. If I find this online I'm well within my rights to file a copyright take down, I am not a public figure and any footage of me is an invasion of-

Marron: Okay first of all, you can cut the legalese diatribe, I wasn't going to upload this anywhere without your approval. Secondly, if you're so eager to get this on the recording, let's start with what I can do with this footage.

Trunks: I don't want it to be accessible to anyone anywhere Earth.

Marron: Okay, what if it was on an internet that Earth couldn't access, you know, content not available on your planet?

_Noise of Trunks shuffling bags stops. _

Trunks: Do they have that?

Marron: I dunno, I mean space is a big place, they gotta have something.

Trunks: Alright, fine. If you can promise that no one I know is going to view it you can upload it.

Marron: Sweet! So what are you going to be showing us today Trunks?

Trunks: Well I've been working with some explosive chemicals for a while and I thought it'd be fun if we made our own fireworks.

Marron: Ooo, very cool. Are we grading them on presentation or destructive force?

Trunks: Little bit of column A, a little bit of column B.

Marron: Awesome. Now why are we doing it with chemicals and not just ki blasts.

Trunks: Because ki's boring.

_Goten enters the shot from camera right, he has a hand in front of his face to prevent the camera from filming him. _

Goten: Ki is not boring, it's the life energy of everything. It's really versatile and there's a bunch of ways to harness and utilize it!

Trunks: And yet somehow everything always comes down to just doing ki beams. But fine, point made. Ki isn't boring, I just think it's much cooler to blow shit up with science!

Marron: Heard it here first, Trunks declares war on magic and has picked science as his weapon of choice.

_Trunks laughs. _

Trunks: And everyone better take note, I don't start wars I don't intend to win.

Marron: Goten maybe you can compete against Trunks, try and imitate his chemical explosions with ki-based ones? I mean you'll have to drop your ridiculous face shield of a hand to do that. Come on, I promise no one you know is going to see this.

_Goten sheepishly moves his hand to scratching the back of his neck. _

Goten: Why are you even filming this?

Marron: For science, this way we can consult the footage after to see who does what better. And besides it's fun, we already found the third DB today, let's cut loose.

Trunks: DB? That short for _*bleeped*? _

Marron: Oh great, now I'm going to have to bleep that. Come on guys!

Goten: You're bleeping _*bleeped*. _

Marron: Yeah, we don't want other space weirdos knowing about them, do we? Can you imagine what we'd have to put up with if it was common knowledge?

Goten: Fair point.

Trunks: Alright, alright. Now do you guys want to see my first experiment, this one is a thermite compound.

Marron: How far away should we be?

Trunks: Umm, I don't know, I'm sure where you are is fine.

_Trunks lights the compound's fuse and it starts sparking into a very large shower of sparks. _

Trunks: Too close, too close!

Goten: Marron, get behind me!

Marron: Oh _*bleep* _-

_Video cuts out. _

Marron lounged on the deck of the sailing boat enjoying the bright sun and the sounds of the ocean breeze and the muffled cursing from Trunks as he was trying to work on jerry rigging a robotic control system for his miniature submarine. Trying and failing judging by the increasingly creative and violent expletives.

They had known from the start that the fourth Dragon Ball would be over the ocean, but it wasn't till they arrived that they realized the location reading was on top of a deep sea trench. Upon discovering that this would not be a simple retrieval they'd retreated to the main land to acquire supplies to aid the search, including scuba equipment and mechanical parts for a mini sub. Turns out that the radar was actually not the best at determining the _depth _of where the ball was located and they were having a hard time finding the ball, much less retrieving it.

Marron glanced over at the radar that lay next to her, and had it set to the narrowest setting of a 15 meter radius, and sure enough all four balls were in the range. Two of them were on the ship in her backpack while Goten had taken one in his pocket as he was attempting to retrieve the new one with the scuba gear so that Marron could track his progress on the radar. Trunks had decided it would be a more efficient use of time to get and modify a small remote sub to retrieve the ball. Both attempts had been so far giving mixed results.

Marron could sense that Goten was starting to resurface, it wasn't hard to track him when he was in his Super Saiyan form, he was like a glowing bright light in a dimly lit room. He'd been forced to resort to using the transformation to withstand the increased atmospheric pressure and for its illumination down in the deep water.

"Any luck?" Marron called out as he broke the surface a bit away from the boat and swam over.

"No." Goten grunted after he'd pulled out the oxygen breather and climb onto the boat. "This is stupid. It's all just dark down there and you lose all sense of direction. How close was I?"

"Radar said you were right on top of it, until you started going to the right again."

"Urgh! This is stupid!" He shook his head and water flew out of his hair like a dog. "I'm swimming straight down, why do I keep getting all mixed up at which direction I'm swimming in? Even the Earth's ki lines get all tangled up and hard to read."

"Well remember what the scuba shop guy said, about how hard it is to maintain a sense of direction once you start deep diving?" Marron said and offered him a hetab. "Many people even have trouble determining up from down when they get deep enough that they can't see the sunlight."

Goten took the offered drink and downed the entire thing. "Well at least I can always sense where Trunks is so I could tell where the surface was, but that only helps orient me so far. And that's not even getting into how heavy everything is? I train in the gravity chamber all the time, why is this so hard!" He crushed the can between his hands until it was a sheet of condensed aluminum.

Marron sat back in her lounge chair. "I was looking at my phone for a bit while you were down there, the internet says that every 10 meters you go down the atmospheric pressure increases once over, so if you were 500 meters down that's 50 times. If we're unlucky enough that the ball really is at the bottom of the 4 kilometer trench that's over 400 times the atmospheric pressure you'd be feeling on the Earth's surface. Have you been training at 400x gravity?"

Goten didn't respond with words but more a growl of frustration. Marron didn't say anything and turned to look over where Trunks was running his hands through his hair with increasing ferocity.

"Trunks, want to share a submarine status update?"

"Not good," Trunks huffed loudly and got up to come over to the cooler and grabbing a drink, "I don't think I can get a piloting system working with what I have. Maybe if I had a week in my workshop it'd be a different story but that's only a possibility."

"What about using a submarine someone else has already built?" Marron asked, looking for some solution.

Trunks sighed, "The only people that have unmanned subs that can go down that far are all research institutes, and it would be a huge pain to try to convince any of them to part with one, even for a short term loan. Besides what am I going to say I'm using it for on the request paperwork? Hunting for mystical artifacts that no one can know about? Yeah that will go over well."

"We don't know that the ball is at the bottom of the trench, you yourself said the radar had trouble with precision of depth, it could be a lot closer to the top." Goten grumbled petulantly.

"You gonna give diving another shot, Goten?" Marron asked.

Goten rubbed his face, "Well we gotta do something? I am absolutely not asking my Dad for help with this, I will never hear the end of it."

Trunks groaned, "Oh yeah, that's the truth. My Dad would probably refuse on principle, if he didn't laugh in our faces about this being what we deserve for slacking."

"Okay, how about you guys use fusion and make Gotenks get it?"

Trunks stiffened and suddenly found the horizon much more interesting than he had moments prior, and didn't say anything more. Goten on the other hand suddenly couldn't say enough, "I, um, don't think Gotenks would be willing to behave, he kind of sort of has a mind of his own. And, uh, he might be more interested in doing other things." Considering how he was refusing to meet her eyes and how red he'd turned Marron had a pretty good idea what kind of thing had happened the last time they had tried fusion and it would hardly be useful for the current situation. Teenage boys, honestly.

Marron went to check the cooler for another juice when she heard splashing noises on the opposite side of the boat from where the boys were standing. "Hey whichever one of you is throwing stuff into the water, stop it! We shouldn't be littering in the ocean!"

"Not me." "I'm not doing anything."

Wait, really? "Then where are all those splashing noises coming from?" Marron walked over to the starboard side and didn't see anything until she looked straight down and into the face of a girl looking back up at her.

Marron was surprised, "Um, hello? How'd you manage to get all the way out here?" She reached out a hand to help her onto the boat but the blonde girl just seized it in her surprisingly strong grip and began examining it curiously.

But before Marron could ask the girl any more questions, they were interrupted when a new person burst up from the water and grabbed the first girl and pulled her behind her. She was older, definitely a woman and not a girl, and she had long pink hair. "Ephyra! What did I tell you about swimming off on your own near the surface!"

"But Ianassa," Ephyra whined, "I just wanted to get a look at the boat and the people. I was hiding from them and everything."

"How were you hiding! You're holding the land-dwellers hand!" snapped Ianassa.

Marron was about to ask what blondie meant by that, but her mouth clicked shut when she saw the fins where their feet should be. Oh. They were mermaids. Huh, that was something you didn't see everyday. Would it be rude if Marron mentioned that? Was she not supposed to notice their fins? Even though they were very pretty? They somewhat resembled their hair color, Ephyra's were golden with long flow-y fins while Ianassa had pink and orange stripes and more angular and smaller.

Erring on the side of caution Marron tried a different topic, "I didn't sense anyone approaching, where the two of you suppressing your ki? Umm, you might call it your life energy or presence?"

Ephyra bopped her head along with the current, "Oreithyia always said to cloak yourself if we're going hunting."

"Oh is that what you're doing? Hunting us from the water?" Trunks asked conversationally, as he and Goten walked over to see them.

"We should be. What are you doing in these waters?" Ianassa demanded. "This is a protected area, why are you land-dwellers trespassing?"

"We're trying to get something that's about a good ways down in the ocean, we'll leave once we retrieve it." Marron offered out her other hand that wasn't in Ephyra's grip to the new one, "Hello, my name is Marron, nice to meet you. The boys are Trunks and Goten."

"I'm Ephyra! And this is Ianassa! She's my guardian because she thinks I'm too young to be on my own even though I'm not a kid anymore." Marron wasn't sure how mermaids aged but Ephyra didn't look much older than Marron and her hair made her seem even younger, short curls that were a vivid yellow even when soaking wet.

"And you are continuing to prove me right in how young you really are," Ianassa scolded. "What are you doing introducing yourself to land-dwellers. You don't know what they'll do with the information."

Ephyra stuck out her tongue. "I think you're being dumb, not all land-dwellers are bad, Actaea was one once and she's great."

"Actaea was an exception," Ianassa said tightly.

"Wait, so, this is a protected area?" asked Goten.

Ianassa turned her gaze to glare at him, "Yes, the trench is our territory, and everything that lies within its waters belongs to our Princess. So whatever you're trying to get is ours and you're trying to steal it."

Goten scratched the back of his head, "Oh, well we wouldn't want to do that. Would you guys be willing to work out a deal of some kind? If we show you what we're looking for and you can get it for us and then we can do a trade for it? That way we're not taking anything you don't know about?"

"A trade?" Ephyra perked up. "Ooh, ooh, what for?"

"Ephyra, no, land-dwellers aren't trustworthy, and besides they don't have anything that we could want," Ianassa said.

"Well I don't know about that, there's probably a lot of things we have on land that you guys don't have underwater," Marron said and thought for a moment before adding, "how about some type of food, that's my usual go-to when making friends. I be there's land food that you guys have never tried."

"Like what?" Ephyra said and even Ianassa looked a tiny bit curious. Marron looked at Goten, he was the one with the cooking skills. "Umm, well lets see, what kind of food do you guys like?" Goten asked.

"Meat." Ianassa said and made a point of flashing her very sharp teeth. Ah, she didn't get those eating a kelp diet.

"Okay, carnivores, that's cool," Marron said undaunted. "How do you guys usually eat meat, do you like it raw or cooked? Do you have cooked meat underwater?"

"If we desire to cook our meals we can use the hot flows," said Ianassa.

"Oh the hydrothermal vents? You use those for cooking, that's neat," said Trunks.

Perhaps Ephyra could sense a discussion about the vents and wanted to head it off as she interrupted with an eager, "I like dolphin and squid and especially octopus!"

"Octopus? I can make a mean takoyaki," offered Goten.

"What is this takoyaki?" Ianassa asked suspiciously.

"It's fried balls with octopus in them. Wait, you guys probably can't get fried stuff underwater, so this will be a novelty."

"Can we make takoyaki?" Marron asked.

"Yeah, I just need a few things, like the right pan and some groceries, we don't have any tenkasu. Oh and the octopus."

"I remember that Roshi's got a takoyaki pan over at Kame House, that's not that far from here. Trunks why don't you go fly over and get it while we set up the kitchen on some land?"

"Also can you go by a store and buy the tenkasu and green onions for me. We have enough ginger I think," said Goten.

"But I was gonna build a submarine-" Trunks said, Marron didn't know if he was petulant at having his project thwarted or being demoted to errand boy. Marron patted him on his shoulder, "Well now you're going on a grocery run so we can make takoyaki for mermaids now. Keep up." Then she turned back to Ianassa and Ephyra, "That means you guys need to capture some octopuses for us to cook. Octopi? Octopodes? Can you guys do that?"

Ianassa was insulted, "Of course we can. I'll ask Oreithyia, she's the best hunter we have."

"If we're going to get Oreithyia, we need to also invite Actaea too. Oh! Oh! And my mom," piped up Ephyra.

"The Princess doesn't need to deal with such trivial affairs," Ianassa began hastily.

"Please Ianassa? It would be super cool and I bet my mom would like to taste the octopus balls. Please, please, please?" It was funny to watch Ianassa's will melting under the onslaught of Ephyra's pleas.

"Tell you what Ianassa," said Marron, "we'll make the food and all your friends, and then afterwards you can tell us if it's worth helping us find the object we're looking for."

"...I'll allow it for the sake of Ephyra," she said finally.

"I need a landmass to put the capsule house so I can use the kitchen we have," Goten said, "are there any small islands or something around here?"

"Yep! There's one that ways." Ephyra pointed in a direction. Ianassa said nothing but silently grabbed Ephyra's hand and moved it so she was pointing 15 degrees more to the right. "Oops, I mean that way!

They followed their directions and came upon a large coral reef that encircled a lagoon. The atoll had sections that were dozens of meters wide at points, and even had some sparse vegetation, so they set up the house on one of those sections.

Goten got started on dicing the ginger and making the batter and the sauce while Marron cleaned up the kitchen and made more space for Goten to work. Trunks arrived about a half hour later and pulled out a capsule containing Roshi's takoyaki pan and the groceries. His reward was getting to setup the pan on the stovetop, it required tinkering to get it to heat evenly and Trunks baby-talked the stove as he got it working.

Soon enough they could hear Ephyra's voice yelling, "We're here land people!" Outside Ianassa was nowhere to be seen but Ephyra had the company of two new mermaids. One had very short violet hair and a tiger-striped tail and introduced herself as Actaea and the other had long wavy green hair and an iridescent tail who was Oreithyia. She was also the one lugging behind a large net filled with squirming octopuses.

"I was told we're going to be trying a land-dweller's dish?" Oreithyia said, "Ephyra was very excited about it and told me I needed to capture the octopi for it? I hope I brought enough."

"I mean that is a lot of octopus, but then again I have no idea how much you guys eat, is it a lot?" asked Goten.

"Yes, I found that mermaids appetites are about three times as large as humans, something I noticed after my own transformation," Actaea explained, "That won't be a problem will it?"

"Nah, you're in good company, we're used to big eaters." Marron waved her off.

Moments later Ianassa reappeared, this time holding the hand of a middle-aged mermaid that har orange coral curlers in her hair that matched her own hair color, and had bright orange and pink fins.

"This is Princess Doris," Ianassa introduced her, her clipped tone making clear the amount of reverence Doris ought to be greeted with.

They greeted her before Goten grabbed the net of octopuses and announced, "I'm going to need a second pair of hands with the grill, I'm not as fast as my mom. Marron, you can come help me."

Marron agreed and helped him carry the net back to the house, it wasn't that it was heavy so much as it was bulky _and moving _. Marron refused to be in the room till all the octopuses were dead, but she helped with the dicing afterwards.

But the real treat was watching Goten work the grill, first he poured the batter over the pan and it filled all the little round holes, then he sprinkled the diced octopus and other ingredients into the holes to fill each ball. Then they used the poking sticks to turn the little balls of frying batter so that the bottom could get cooked. They probably had real names but Marron wasn't about to bother asking when poking sticks was just as accurate. Poke, poke, poke, tiny stabbing. Goten was a lot better at it than her, he only needed to poke it a few times to get to to flip, Marron was getting better with each one though. Except for one half-finished dough ball she accidentally skewered and managed to fling a foot away, that one she just wasn't going to mention to Goten.

After the first batch had been made and put into bowls with the sauce drizzled on top and toothpicks on the side, Trunks helped bring them out to the mermaids. Marron gave the first bowl to the Princess, assuming she would be the first to try it but Ianassa seized the dish. "Princess, please let someone else try it before you do, you don't know what the land-dwellers could be planning with their cooking techniques." She poked one of the balls with a toothpick suspiciously.

Goten was incensed, "I would never sabotage food! But if it makes you feel more comfortable," Goten reached over and took one from Ianassa's bowl and popped it into his mouth. "See, totally safe."

The mermaids all turned to Actaea as if she was the frequent answerer of queries. "Actaea are these how they're supposed to be?" Oreithyia asked.

"I've never heard of takoyaki before, I guess they didn't have it in my part of the world," Actaea said thoughtfully. "But I know frying is a delicious way to prepare any food, and they don't look odd, I think these will be fine."

"Ianassa, I think I will trust these octopus balls," Doris announced her decision before eating the first one cautiously, "What a peculiar texture. But it's most delicious!"

The rest of the mermaids quickly dove in and the bowls were swiftly emptied. Goten and Marron returned to the grill and every time they turned out a batch the mermaids were ready for the next one. They were eating them as fast as they could make them. Marron might have been sneaking a few of the balls herself as they were making them, Goten certainly was trying one or two from every batch to "test" but Marron knew snacking when she saw it.

Trunks played waiter and was taking the fresh ones out to the mermaids and bringing the empty dishes back. Finally around the 7 th batch things began to slow down and around the 9 th batch the mermaids were full. They still had to make two more rounds so there would be enough for Goten and Trunks to eat for lunch but it was a more sedate pace.

After they had finished cleaning up the kitchen, they rejoined the mermaid party that was on the shores of the shoal. Doris greeted them, "Your meal was a most pleasing offering, now Ianassa said you wanted something in return from my trench?"

Goten held out a Dragon Ball, "It looks like this, it's an orange sphere with some stars in it. It would have only been in your trench for the past couple of years and we'd like it back. We know where it is, the only problem is going down deep enough to get it. Once we get it, we'll be out of your guy's way."

Doris took the Dragon Ball and examined it, "Yes it does seem foreign, and after such a good meal I suppose we can assist you in retrieving your ball." Marron resisted the urge to fist-pump as Doris turned to the green haired mermaid, "Oreithyia, you have the best eyes for the deep, will you help these land-dwellers with their task?"

"Of course, Princess. Let me see the sphere." After examining it for a bit Oreithyia asked them, "And you say you can take me to its exact location?"

"Yes, though since we don't know the depth of the ball, it's possible our reading could be a little off if it's deep enough," said Trunks. "But I can take you directly over where the reading says it is. I'll fly out with you, how fast can you swim? I don't want to outpace you."

Oreithyia scoffed, "Land-dweller, you should never underestimate a mermaid's speed in the water. I assure you I can more than keep up with you."

Trunks chuckled, "Well I look forward to being proved wrong. In fact, how about we race?" They waited until Oreithyia was in deep enough water that she was able to get a good start, then Marron counted down and they both took off.

After they'd left, Marron turned to the remaining mermaids. They had some time before Oreithyia came back with the ball and Marron wanted to ask some questions about something she'd heard mentioned earlier. "So Actaea, Ephyra said you once lived on land? How did the tail happen?"

"Yes, I was human once," Actaea laughed, "I was a marine biology student and that's how I met Oreithyia one day when I was doing field work on some of the barrier reefs. I was quite taken with the chance to talk with a mermaid and Oreithyia was certainly an engaging conversationalist. Eventually she started to talk about me joining her in the ocean and becoming her consort." (At least that's what Marron assumed she meant because it was pronounced a lot more like "conch-sort".) "It took her awhile to convince me but she was rather insistent and I was persuaded."

"So there's ways for humans to turn into mermaids?" Marron asked.

"There's a ritual for it," Ephyra butted in, "that can turn human women into mermaids."

"Oh, only women and not guys? I mean that makes sense if we're only talking about mermaids, but would guys be called mermen?" Goten asked.

"No, men are for eating, not mating," Ianassa said, making sure to flash all of her very ominous teeth as she said it.

"Oh. That's well, I mean good to know," stammered Goten. Marron started to giggle at the uncomfortable look on his face.

"Can I nibble on you?" Ephyra asked Goten, "I've never tasted human meat before."

Doris interrupted before Goten's stammering could really kick off, "No, Ephyra, you don't make friends with what you eat and you don't ask to eat what you make friends with. We mustn't be rude."

Marron laughed, "Yeah, let's stick with us feeding you takoyaki instead."

They got to chatting about life on land, which was a topic of great interest to Ephyra, she wanted to hear all about it. She was especially delighted when she heard that Trunks had a younger sister and Goten had a niece. As an only child, apparently the concept of siblings was a foreign and fascinating one to her.

A little while later Trunks landed and was very vague about the results of who won the race. Yet not more than ten minutes after he returned he was challenging Ianassa to an arm wrestling contest and even went Super Saiyan before hand. This was especially delightful to Ephyra who praised both the fact his hair could change colors and that he'd chosen to turn it blonde like her. Goten couldn't resist transforming as well just so Ephyra could shriek her delight even louder.

The arm wrestling contest went on for a while but there was a clear victor and the win went to Ianassa. Marron wanted to laugh at Trunks fighting a sulk after he accepted his loss. "Okay, I admit, I'm impressed with how strong you guys are."

"We have to be, to survive along the trench's depth takes much fortitude," Ianassa said smugly, her victory putting her in a better mood. Goten started up a conversation with her about what it was like to be that far down and without sunlight.

Marron walked over to where Trunks was standing and asked, "You going to retry it as Super Saiyan 2?"

Trunks shot her a sharp look, "What makes you think I can do Super Saiyan 2?"

"Oh can you not?" Marron played it off, not letting on how much she'd noticed his change in posture at her question.

"I dunno, that would be telling."

"No it would be sayin'." Trunks groaned and did not appreciate her pun, which was a pity. Marron was a genius.

She didn't know why he was being so evasive about her question, either he could or he couldn't, but him trying to get out of the question was more interesting than either answer. See, Marron had figured that he could have done it just from osmosis knowledge of the form from Gotenks. He'd already done it before, on his own shouldn't be that much harder to do doing so on his own ki supply.

But Trunks was refusing to say, which, why? If he couldn't he would probably be embarrassed? Daddy issues and the fear of paternal disappointment? Insecurity because the other Trunks from the future was stronger and better than him? But at the same time, that was a simple thing to admit to, even if it was an embarrassing one, refusing to answer seemed to tip the scales in the other direction.

If he could, why would he be hiding it? The only reasons Marron could come up with were trying to hide it from his father or trying to keep it a secret from Goten? Could it be that Trunks could do it, and Goten couldn't? Possible but overall unlikely since Goten had the same Gotenks advantage. If Marron was a gambling girl, and she was to an extent, her bet would be that it was something he was trying to keep a secret from Goku and Vegeta for whatever reason, probably to avoid being a sparring partner.

Trunks was a much better liar, she might have better luck trying to bait Goten into answering the question later, between his nervous response she might glean more clues.

After about two hours, Oreithyia finally resurfaced and had with her the two-star ball. She arrived in time to see Ephyra showing off what she'd been working on during that time on the shore, three seashell crowns. She gave one to each of them and Ephyra made them promise to come back again some time and bring the girls with them. Trunks and Goten reluctantly agreed, and Marron imagined they were both apprehensive of what havoc introducing Pan and Bulla to a mermaid who was both very strong and a princess would cause.

They were driving through the great desert, several hours away from the location of the 5th ball, and it was currently Marron's turn to play music. She'd been working her way through the "sing-a-long" playlist of songs so infectious and poppy that it was impossible to avoid learning the lyrics after a few listens and even more impossible to not want to join in. The boys had tried to fight against the power of the earworm but now weeks later they had succumbed to the might of the music and were belting out the chorus along with it.

And they were really put out when Marron suddenly stopped the current song in the middle of the best part. "Hey do you guys feel that? Two life energies north of here."

"You stopped the music for that? It's probably just some animals," huffed Trunks.

"No, they're more like people's. I'm sure of it."

"What are they doing out here in the desert?" Goten asked. "There's not much civilization around for at least an hour in any direction."

"I don't know, but it's weird isn't it, people being out here? We should probably go check it out, don't you think?"

"Where are they," said Trunks. Marron reached an arm out into the front seat and they both took her hand and she guided their attention to the energies she was sensing.

"Hmm, yeah that's definitely something even if it is pretty faint," Goten agreed. "Trunks we should go check it out."

"Fine, not like we don't have the time," Trunks said. "But start the song over, you totally ruined the flow."

30 minutes later and they arrived at the location where there was a truck on the side of the road and two people were waving them down. Upon pulling over Marron realized that the inhabitants were in fact two animal people, a rabbit man with dark brown fur and a red and white spotted ferret lady. They were next to a truck that was on very tall wheels and to Marron's untrained eye looked rather flashy and gaudy with its overly large tires and chrome trim.

"Oh thank goodness!" The ferret lady called out to them when they pulled over. "We never thought we'd run into anyone all the way out here."

"What seems to be the trouble?" Goten asked as he opened his door to get out and talk. "You run out of gas?"

"No, the damn truck isn't working! Can't believe it, after all the money I poured into it and it just won't work!" The rabbit man stamped his foot in frustration a few times in quick succession.

"Sounds like you're up Trunks," Marron slapped his shoulder, and Trunks grumbled and grabbed his capsule case as he stepped out of the car and started poking through it for the one that had all his tools in it.

"Do you guys need anything to eat or drink? It must get pretty hot out here." Marron offered the ferret lady who was closest the snack bag and a water bottle.

"That would be great," the ferret lady said, thankful and took the water and some jerky, "I'm Fendra and that's my boyfriend Radator."

"You can call me Rad."

"Okay." Trunks said and from his tone of voice Marron doubted he was ever going to use the shortened version of the name. Trunks finally found the right capsule and bags and cases of tools appeared where he threw it. Rad let out a long whistle as he saw the pile of tools, "You know anything about working on cars?"

"Yeah, I'm a bit of an enthusiast," Trunks shrugged nonchalantly.

"Me too!" Rad said eagerly.

"First I gotta ask why are you taking this car off-roading, this type of truck wasn't designed for that type of wear off the line. And these modifications are certainly something."

"Yeah that's what that idiot mechanic said, but he didn't know what he was talking about," Rad said with confidence Marron wasn't sure he had earned, "That's why I had to soup the truck up myself. New wheels and a new suspension system to start with."

Trunks looked as if his soul was leaving his body. "Oh. Were you trying to make it as heavy as you could before you took it out into the open desert?" Trunks wasn't outright calling him an idiot but the uptick in his inflection was certainly doing most of the heavy lifting.

Trunks didn't say anything more until he'd walked around and stood on a stepladder to get a look under the hood. With just one look he was reeling back to look at Rad and demanded loudly "What did this poor truck do to you? What could it have possibly done to deserve this!"

"I don't understand, I souped up the truck with the best parts I could find."

Trunks sighed, pained, "How about you give me a rundown of all the modifications you put on this thing. Let me try to fix this." Oh boy, none of that sounded good, they might be here for a while.

Marron turned back to Fendra who was quite apologetic, "I'm sorry for the trouble. We've been out here for hours, the truck was giving us problems for a while but all of a sudden it just gave out." She sighed loudly as Rad began listing off modifications to Trunks. "Anyways, what brings you guys all the way out here?"

"We're on a road trip to see the world and it's sites, we just happened to be coming out this way," Marron lied.

"Well, we're certainly lucky you guys did," Fendra said. "I hope you won't mind me asking, but how do you all know each other, you all have different colorings and I'm told that it's not common for humans that are related?" she trailed off, her sincere curiosity oddly sweet.

Marron laughed, "We're just friends."

"Oh, I hope you don't think me rude, it's just so hard to tell with humans, you all tend to look alike," Fendra fretted, "You all have the same face shapes and ears. Not that there's anything wrong with that, I mean back in ZooTropolis I have some dear human friends."

"Oh, you're from ZooTropolis?" Goten perked up. "The big city built for furry people? I've never been."

"I visited there once on a trip, it was really neat," said Marron, "with all the different sized buildings and all the different types of restaurants."

"Yes, it's lovely! I'm so glad King Furry established it. It's so nice having salons that specialize in fur care. I can't begin to describe how terrible the time I went to a human salon was, they completely fried my tail! It's so wonderful having a city where all the furred people can come and find a place they belong."

"Don't some humans live there too, if I'm recalling correctly?" Marron asked, "Or where the ones I saw all just tourists?"

"Oh no, there's some humans who live in ZooTropolis, they're just the minority of the population. It takes a certain kind of person to live in the majority furry city, and some people get so strange about it."

"We know a bit what that's like, one of my old family's friends is a pigman that I grew up around," Marron said, pausing for a moment to consider if she should or shouldn't say what she was thinking before deciding to barrel on with it. "You know, Goten actually has some monkey ancestry in his family lineage, don't you Goten?"

Fendra lit up and turned to Goten with great interest, "Oh, so you're parentage is from an inter-species relationship?"

"Yeah. I guess you could say that," Goten said tightly then loosened up a moment later and let out a laugh. "My dad's part monkey, he was born with a tail, so was my brother. Skipped me though."

"Oh that's a shame," Fendra cooed, "tails are wonderful, I couldn't imagine living without mine. I bet your brother looked adorable with his."

"I've heard stories about it from my parents, but he had to have it removed when he was younger for unrelated reasons," Goten said. "Don't think he misses it."

"That's too bad!" exclaimed Fendra, and she started to run her hands over her own tail as if perishing the thought of having it removed.

"Well to be fair, your tail is a lot more impressive. Look at how fluffy and bushy it is," Marron said.

"Thank you, I'm a bit vain about it, I'll confess," Fendra said as she curled her tail around her neck like a scarf. Marron and Goten spent several minutes admiring it.

Fendra changed the topic, "I can't imagine how difficult it was for your grandparents, Goten. A human and a furry together would get strange looks, even in ZooTropolis. Rad and I have enough difficulty being together and we're both furred."

"Is it because you guys are different species? I thought that wasn't a problem for furries?" Goten asked.

Fendra shrugged, "Well it's more because I'm a carnivore and he's a herbivore, that bothers people sometimes."

Before Marron could ask any more questions they were interrupted by Trunks loudly yelling, "Why would you add one of those contraptions to the intake!"

"It's called a turbonator, it helps atomize the fuel by creating turbulence."

"No, it's an obstruction that does nothing but restrict your air flow!"

"That's what it's supposed to do, by disrupting the airflow it makes it more efficient-"

"No, you're just blocking air from getting into the engine!"

Fendra sighed quietly, "Does your friend know a lot about cars?"

"Oh yeah Trunks lives for working on them," said Goten. "He's got a hoverbike he babies and will sweet talk to for hours as he's working on it."

"Sounds like Rad, though I've had my doubts as to how knowledgable he is about it sometimes," she sighed again and looked skyward, "Sure he's a dumb bunny, but he's my dumb bunny."

"I think you're exaggerating," Rad insisted.

Trunks was not having it, "I'm not, you wasted money modifying this thing and you're going to be spending even more money to undo the damage if you ever want to drive this car again."

"I bet you're not even a mechanic!" Rad insisted before dropping the goldmine of a line when he continued, "I see the way your legs flex in your too tight pants, you only get thighs like that when your day job is working on a pole."

"...Are you insinuating I'm a stripper?" Trunks was incredulous but edged with delight at such a claim. Marron perked up at the change in conversation and Goten resorted to hiding his face in his hands.

Fendra interrupted, "There is nothing wrong with being a stripper! I say if people want to pay you for getting naked, well you can make good money doing that."

"I agree with you, but alas the point is moot," Marron said to Fendra, "Fortunately for the rest of us, Trunks's exhibitionism doesn't include getting naked in public."

"I think you're just trying to up-charge me," Rad said stubbornly.

"Hardly, I'm doing this as a courtesy," Trunks scoffed. "You couldn't afford to pay my rates, be it for work in your truck or me taking my pants off."

Goten had finally taken his face out of his hands, "Why would you think he's a stripper!"

"With thighs like those how can I not."

"We do martial arts!" Goten yelled.

Fendra interrupted, "Rad, you need to hang out with humans who aren't strippers. Just because that's what Natalie's thighs look like doesn't mean that every human whose got similar thigh muscles got them pole-dancing."

Trunks shut the lid on the hood and stepped down, "This poor truck has been abused and gone through enough horrors already and saving it would involve hours of work stripping down all these asinine modifications. Which I have neither the time nor the inclination to do right now. Your best bet is to put it in a capsule and take it to a mechanic who actually knows what they're doing to fix it."

"We still need to help them," Goten said.

Trunks ran his hand through his hair, "Alright, I will _loan _them one of my capsules." He pulled out two capsules and was about to give them to Rad when he stopped and thought better of it and instead handed them to Fendra. "The yellow one is empty and the green one will get you back to civilization. Once you're there you better return it to the local Capsule Corp office to have it forwarded back to me."

Fendra thanked them immensely while Rad was pouting next to her, she hit him in the shoulder when he had started to protest and he shut up. Once they were assured that Rad and Fendra's loaned jeep was in working order, they took off in the opposite direction.

Marron looked into the backpack next to her in the back seat, they had five Dragon Balls in it, they were only missing the one-star and six-star ones now. Trunks's earlier efforts this morning to put them in a capsule had failed and he was still pouting about it as he drove them across the Great Bay. He was flying at the car's top speed but even still it was an hour of flying across nothing but open water, and quite frankly Marron was rather done with seeing nothing around but water.

Goten might have been getting similarly twitchy because he was messing with the Dragon Radar in the front seat, comparing it to their road map. "Okay so I think the maps wrong now? The next ball is not where you marked it, it's moved westward."

"Someone's moving it? Who would be gathering them?" asked Trunk worriedly, someone else gathering Dragon Balls could mean many number of possible scenarios, many of them worthy of concern. Was Frieza back again?

"Here, let me see it," Marron reached for the radar, "huh, those are the coordinates of Uranai Baba's place."

"Oh," Trunks sighed with relief, Baba was something he knew personally and how to handle, not potential new person or threat.

"Maybe someone took it to her?" Goten offered.

Marron nodded, "Makes sense, I bet someone found it and tried to barter for a fortune telling by trading it instead of paying her fee."

"Okay are the coordinates that far off from where I'm headed?" asked Trunks. Marron reassured him he was doing fine and they could reorientate on the other side of the Bay. They ended up taking a detour to go to some area the boys vaguely recalled from when they fought Majin Buu as kids. They camped out there and the next morning headed over to the Fortuneteller desert palace.

When they arrived in the late morning they found a queue of people who had been in lines for hours hoping to get their fortunes told. Shrugging, they took their place at the end of the line, with the people before them shooting them not so subtly smug looks about being ahead.

After a few minutes a little ghost in a conical straw hat and reading a clipboard floated over to greet them in a fake cheery voice. "Hello and Welcome to the Fortuneteller Baba's where 'a Fortune Read Today Averts Catastrophes Tomorrow' how may I help you?"

"Can you tell Baba we stopped by? She knows us." Trunks said.

The ghost lowered it's clipboard. "Oh. It's you." His voice had lost all the false enthusiasm. "I'll send her a message you've arrived. It's probably going to take awhile, she'll see you on her lunch break. You can wait inside."

Rich dude next to them was most upset at their cutting in line and protested loudly as they walked past the line. Marron made sure to flash him the victory sign.

They waited in a room with chairs that were overstuffed and lots of pictures of witchy cats on the walls. Dracula poked in and ended up staying a bit, he was a pleasant conversationist, he only asked if he could taste their blood twice. Trunks was nearly convinced to let him do it out of curiosity as to how he'd react to Saiyan Blood, would it wire him up or maybe be poisonous to him? The possibilities were enticing. But that plan was scrapped when it was realized Marron wouldn't be able to film Dracula with her phone to study for later, and if they couldn't properly document the experiment, there was no point.

Soon enough they were interrupted when Baba floated into the room atop her ball, hopped off it and took the chair behind the desk. "Oh, so you finally decided to show up? Are you here for the Dragon Ball I have?"

"Well that was easy, were you expecting us?" Marron asked. "Did you see it in your ball?" Goten added.

Baba huffed, "I don't need my ball to tell me what I can discover using common deduction. You brats are always so predictable, trying to use magic to fix the mistakes you make." Then like she couldn't help herself and added, "Besides my brother phoned me to tell me you were looking for them and stole his takoyaki pan." Yeah, that would do it.

"So you do have it?" Goten pressed.

"Yes, a man brought it to me to barter for his fortune, knocked 5 million off his price. Knew someone would eventually show up for it, figured I could extort Bulma Briefs for it whenever she came around," Baba said wistfully.

"Well I'm here instead, and I think I'd rather try my hand at the martial challenge." Trunks cracked his knuckles in a manner meant to be menacing but Baba utterly unaffected. "Oh stop with your little muscle show you little miscreant, I'm not withholding the ball from you, in fact you can very well have it. I know how to read a forgone conclusion when I see one."

Oh was it really going to be that easy? "You're not going to ask what we're going to use our wishes for to make sure they're worthy?" Marron asked.

Baba snorted, "No, I don't care what you whippersnappers are getting up to, that's your business. Besides, I already know what you're going to wish for, _that _I have seen in my ball."

"Well then you already know more than me," Goten scratched the back of his head. "I haven't figured out what I want to wish for yet."

"You will." Baba didn't elaborate more beyond that.

"Well maybe I still wanna fight," said Trunks, pouting and crossing his arms. "I heard my mom and Krillin talking about it once, maybe I want a turn to fight your zombie guys."

"You did not come here to fight my warriors of the dead." Baba sounded so very done.

"No, but I'm not opposed to doing so."

"Alright, listen here you little brat, I'll even throw in a free reading for each of you, so long as you scram and get out of my hair."

"Sweet, free question." Trunks turned to them, clearly eager for praise for his cleverness. He was disappointed when instead Goten admonished him. " Trunks, you shouldn't bully people, especially little old ladies."

"Who you calling old, I am 664 years young!" Baba snapped at Goten. "And your beau can try to bully me but he'll find I've dealt with far more impressive forces than you kids, I'm not going to be done in by his preening and peacocking. He can try and intimidate me, he'll fail but he's free to try."

Okay, Marron was going to interrupt this before Trunks resorted to literally flexing in front of Baba. And before they reacted to Baba knowing about them. "What should I get my mom for her birthday?" At Goten's incredulous face she addded, "What? She's impossible to shop for." It was a perfectly good usage of her question.

Baba snapped her fingers and the ball floated over to the desk, plopping in front of her, she gazed into for a moment before answering, "Those Rascal Rabbit's Dark Chocolate and Salted Caramel Moon Pies are going to be quietly discontinued in a few months time."

"Oh no, Mom loves those, I'll have to buy a whole bunch." This was bad news, she'd have to tell her father right away. Maybe they could order a pallet of them and surprise her mother with them once she found out about them being discontinued.

"Well I have a question for your great and mighty wisdom oh most powerful and impressive witch," Trunks began and Marron was already rolling her eyes. "Why wouldn't the Dragon Balls fit in capsules when I tried earlier?"

Baba ignored his sarcasm and gazed into her ball, "Because they are orbs of powerful magic by the planet's God that interfere with the capsule's effective field."

"That's stupid, all kinds of things can go in capsules, magical or not, why can't dragon balls?"

"Don't argue with me boy, I am an expert on magics that you know nothing of."

"Yeah well, magic is just a bullshit excuse to explain away science that isn't understood yet."

"Careful there little heretic, you know better than most that mortals should fear and respect the powers of magic and gods."

Trunks made a face, "Gods are different, besides all they are is just another kind of person with their own type of power. I mean my dad's a god, kinda, and all he does is use it for fighting, it's just like another transformation."

Baba looked at Trunks like he was an idiot, "I don't know how it's fallen for me to be the one to inform you that your father should not be held up as a model example of anything. Including divinity."

Goten sighed loudly and Marron started to giggle as Trunks was ready to continue his debate about magic with the witch.

Finally Goten interrupted, "Well I got a question for your precognition Baba? If we leave these Dragon Balls with you for a week will they be safe? It's time for us to meet up with our friends for a planned trip to WaterWorld and we don't want them around in case they ask questions, and if we can't put them in a capsule..."

Baba looked at Goten with narrowed eyes before turning back to her ball, "Yes, they will be safe with me until you chose to return for them."

"Okay well that at least solves that problem." Goten said.

"And now for the other one," Trunks finished looking at Marron.

"You guys aren't sending me home before we complete the hunt, I guess I'm coming along to WaterWorld." Marron crossed her arms.

"Yeah but our friends from high school are going to be there," said Goten. "And they don't know about any of this junk." He waved his hands around, presumably both Baba and the Dragon Balls were included in "this junk".

"I can keep secrets. Besides I already met one of them at the Tournament, Trunks don't you remember. I played it cool with her."

"Yeah..." Trunks sighed. "Okay so long as you know when to keep your mouth shut you can come along."

"Yay! WaterWorld, here we come!" Marron cheered.


End file.
